

QassJ<NSZJS. 



Book 



S2_3l 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



3, Compmb of JTuneral CXbbxtsste. 



AN AID FOR PASTORS. 



A BOOK OF COMFORT FOR THE BEREAVED. 



EDITED BY 

J.^ SANDERSON, D.D., 

author of 
'Jesus on the Holy Mount,' 1 and Editor of "The Pulpit Treasury. 



INTRODUCTION BY 

JOHN HALL, D.D., 

Pastor Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York. 



NEW YORK : 
E. B. TREAT, 771 BROADWAY. 

1839. 
[Copyright. Price $1.75.] 



& 



4^ 



By Transfer 

P.O. Dept. 
Mar 23 06 



INTRODUCTION, 



P 

<* 



John Hall, D.D. 

Pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York. 



HPHERE are few more delicate tasks falling to the lot 
of a minister than the conducting of what are 
known as funeral services, It does not meet the diffi- 
culty to have provided for him a form employed over 
all, without exception — the best proof of which is that 
where such a form is in fixed use, occasions are con- 
stantly arising in which the clergyman is constrained, by 
his own sense of the fitness of things, to add words of 
his own. He thus runs the risk of making invidious 
distinctions, while the uniform employment of the same 
language, if it be fit in the case of a decided Christian, is 
stronger than the Christian consciousness recognizes as 
fit where no profession of faith has been made. 

Among the ways* in which the minister can prepare 
himself to discharge this duty is by the prayerful use of 
such helps as are within reach. Foremost among these 
is the word of God, next in place will be the suggestive 
examples set by men, in whom, notwithstanding the 

[vj 



vi INTRODUCTION. 

imperfections of our common nature, good sense and 
knowledge of human nature have been elevated and con- 
secrated by grace. 

There are many ministers, who, like the present 
writer, have been censured for statements made over the 
dead when they carefully guarded their testimony and 
avowedly confined it to the record of their own inter- 
course with the deceased ; and some, who have had 
" hearers'' take their departure because enough was not 
said in eulogy of their buried kindred. Such things 
must probably be expected in the complications of a 
society, partly Christianized, and largely influenced by 
conventional usage. A true minister can only try to 
maintain in himself a conscience void of offence, and 
at the same time avoid the giving of just offence to 
others. 

The Kev. Dr. Sanderson, in undertaking to aid young 
ministers, has two elements of encouragement in the at- 
tempt. The first is that he has been himself an active 
pastor, and understands the work to be done. The 
second is, that not wholly relying on his own judgment, 
he avails himself of the labors of others, who have 
secured the confidence of the Christian community. 

In commending his undertaking I may be permitted 
to reproduce w 7 ords long ago intended to warn against 
excessive and indiscriminate praise, and which the 
observation of later years has not tended to weaken, but 
rather confirmed. 

Suppose Herod Antipas had died six months before 
John the Baptist was beheaded. Imagine a court- 



INTRODUCTION. vii 

preacher of the day making the funeral address. There 
is no evidence that the Jews had at that time any eervice- 
book or anything to read in the synagogue except the Old 
Testament. So he must make his funeral service accord- 
ing to the circumstances. He would, of course, glance 
lightly at that infelicity of the royal departed which com- 
plicated his domestic life by making him the husband of 
his niece, who was also his living brother's wife, and in 
the room of his living wife. " There are, however, hap- 
pily other and brighter spots on which the memory 
would love to linger. He had shown the deepest interest 
in that great revival preacher who had, as all knew, 
stirred the hearts of thousands. He had heard him of- 
ten, and been deeply impressed. He had even opened 
his house to him. He gave the influence of his great 
name and authority to him, so that the courtiers, as 
they all knew, had been also attracted and interested. 
Not only that, but the distinguished dead had proved the 
depth and sincerity of his convictions by doing many 
things recommended by the eloquent preacher. How 
can we, in view of all these evidences of pleasure and 
profit from such ministrations, doubt that this child of 
an Idumean family has gone to be with Abraham, Isaac 
and Jacob ? " Unfortunately, however, Herod lived too 
long, and his having v a place in history is mainly due to 
the circumstance that he ordered the beheading of this 
"interesting" and eloquent preacher without the 
formality of a trial, and from being a patronizing and 
interested hearer becomes the Baptist's murderer. 

It is one thing to like a stirring sermon now 



viii INTRODUCTION. 

and then, the reality of which is a pleasant variety 
among the shallow and painted frauds of the theatre, 
and opera, and even fashionable social life, and it is 
quite another to believe with the heart what is said. It 
is one thing to be on good terms with the prominent men 
in the church, and so conciliate their followers, now and 
then to give a subscription, perhaps even forego a din- 
ner-party to preside at a benevolent meeting; and it is 
quite another to submit one's self to God in faith and 
obedience. It is one thing to respect devoted men, and 
even publicly compliment them as sincere and so forth, 
and quite another to put lusts and passions under the 
control of the truth they teach, and to deny ungodliness 
and worldly lusts. But to rich and poor, high and 
low, this is the divine requirement; and we must be 
sparing of our eulogies over men, as Christians, however 
prominent or public-spirited as citizens, if they have 
never given evidence of subjection to the Father of 
spirits. Happily we are not the judge of men's standing 
before God; but we may make ourselves such, and rest 
favorable judgments on very slender evidences. 



CONTENTS. 



[See Appendix for Index of Authors and Texts.] 



CHILDHOOD : 

PAGE 

God's Love of Little Children Rev. T. Gasquoine 13 

A Mother's Sorrow, Rev. A. 8. Robertson 14 

Some Reasons for Removal . Rev. Varnum Lincoln 15 

The Child Glorified J. Sanderson, D.D 17 

The Missing One Rev. G. Orme 18 

An Infant's Death no Real 

Loss J. Sanderson, D.D 20 

Early Piety Rev. J. W. McCree 21 

The Lessons of God's Rod. . .Rev. G. D. Macgregor 23 

The Funeral Train at Nain. .Rev. Gebler 24 

Unfulfilled Hopes Wm. Graham, D.D 26 

The Child in Glory Rev. Thornley Smith , . 28 

Death on a Summer day Rev. W. Forsyth 31 

The Shunamite and Her Son John Bruce, D.D 33 

The Child and the Father's 

Cup Then. L. Cuyler, D.D 35 

Early Death J. R. Macduff, D.D 37 

The Teaching of a Child's 

Death Wm. M. Taylor, D.D., LL.D... 40 

A Child's True Estimate Anonymous 43 

Home Bereavements Henry Ward Beecher 47 

Infant Salvation Rev. Chas. A. Evans 50 

Piety in Childhood } Rev. Robert Wye Betts 57 



YOUTH : 

Sunset at Noon Rev. W. Rodwett. 72 

The Sleeping Damsel Rev. F. Wagstaff. 74 

One Note in a Burial Hymn. Rev. Chas. Jerdan 76 

Life for the Dead James Hamilton, D.D 78 

[9] 



10 CONTENTS. 

The Amusive Waste of Life, Wm. M. Paxton, D.D 80 

Divine Consolation J. Oswald Dykes, D.D 82 

The Mourner's Best News. . .Rev. Wm. Morley Punshon 85 

The Believer in Life, Death 

aud Eternity Rev. Joseph Haslegrave 89 

Dying in the Lord Rev. W, D. Horwood £7 

The Faded Flower Rev. James Hughes 101 

Immortal Life Rev. James Smith 115 

The Christian's Desire Rev. Francis Ellaby, B.A 125 

Piety in Humble Life Rev. A. E. Lord 130 

The Dying Christian Rev. R. Gibson 142 

The Funeral at the Gate of 

Nain Rev. W. D. Horwood 154 

The Death of the Believer in 

Jesus Rev. James Henry Gwither 160 

What Will Ye Do in the End? Thomas Binney, D.D 168 



MIDDLE AGE: 

The Comforting Announce- 
ment William Ormiston, D.D., LL.D. 188 

Awaiting Coronation William Sprague, D.D 190 

Passing Through the Valley, J. R. Macduff, D.D 191 

Faithfulness and its Reward, Charles Hodge. D.D 193 

Crossing tbe River T. De Witt Talmage, D.D 195 

The Solemnity of Death C F. Deems, D.D 196 

The Compensations of Life 

and Death Dean A. P. Stanley, D.D 198 

The Rendezvous of Humani- 
ty John Cumming, D.D 200 

Gratitude for Triumph Rev. Wm. Jay 202 

Deliverance from the Grave, Canon F. W. Farrar 204 

The Match of the Great De- 
stroyer Rev. Archibald G. Brown 206 

No Victory without a Battle. Morgan Dix, D.D 208 

The Place of Sacred Deposit . Rev. Canon H. Melvill 210 

Christ's Desire to have His 

People with Him J. McElroy, D.D 212 

A Precious Death J. H Howard, D.D 215 

Christian Consolations Rev. Daniel Moore 217 

Jacob's Dying Words Andrew R. Bonar, D.D 220 

The Final Battle W. R. Williams, D.D., LL.D. . 222 

Deliverance from the Fear of 

Death Rev. Daniel Moore 225 

The Believer's Farewell 

Words John Hall, D.D 227 

The Death Day Better than 

the Birthday Rev. C. H Spurgeon 230 

A Royal Alarmist Rev. B. W. Williams 233 

The Happy Mourners Alexander Dickson, D.D 238 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAGE 

Humanity's Emblem William Landels, D.D 236 

Consummate Happiness Andrew R. Bonar, D.D 241 

Preparation for the Passage, Alexander Dickson, D.D 245 

The Pilgrim's Faith and End Rev. Daniel Moore .. . . 249 

OLD AGE : 

Faithfulness Crowned Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D 253 

The Heavenly Hope Rev. James Parsons 254 

The Glad Announcement. . . Gardiner Spring, D.D 256 

The Mortal and the Immor- 
tal Companion Rev. H. F. Burder 257 

The Pivotal Fact Thomas Armitage, D.D 258 

The Death of a Great Man. .Rev. Thomas J. Cole 260 

The Grave's Conqueror Thomas Guthrie, D.D 262 

Thoughts on the last Battle, Rev. C. H. Spurgeon 263 

The Ripe Christian Dying. . . Rev. C. H. Spurgeon 265 

The Inevitable Battle Rev. U. R. Thomas 266 

The Vital Question John Todd, D.D 268 

Resurrection Hope Rev. Canon H. Melvill. 270 

The Future Life Henry 31. Scudder, D.D 271 

The Unavoidable Journey. . .Rev. John H Macdonna 274 

The Aged Believer in Death, David Thomas, D.D 276 

Death and the Resurrection, Rev. Canon Hugh Stowell 278 

The Warfare and Victory. . . Rev. George Clayton 280 

Hope for the Sleeping Dead, William Landels, D.D 283 

The Death of the Old Rev. Thomas Binney 286 

The Perishing and the En- 
during Rev. Canon H. P. Liddon, D.D. 290 

Asleep in Jesus Tlieodore L. Cuyler, D.D 294 

The Gates of Death David Thomas, D.D 298 

Job's Testimony about Him- 
self as a Believer Thomas Guthrie, D.D 302 

The Day of the Christian's 

Death Rev. Gewge S. Ingram 307 

Heaven Warning Earth T Raffles, D.D 313 

The Believer's Confidence. . .Rev. Edward Parsons 318 

Prayer for Wisdom in View 

of Death Rev. T. Raffles, D.D 323 

Holy Ardor after a Heavenly 

State \ . . .Rev. Charles Hyatt 331 

MISCELLANEOUS : 

A Philanthropist. . . W. J. R. Taylor, D.D 341 

A Theological Professor Rev. George P. Fisher 349 

A Lawyer, Editor and College 

Professor Francis Wayland, D.D 356 

A Physician (Death by Heart 

Disease) Rev. Wesley D. Davis 365 



12 CONTENTS. 

Our Trials John Newton P 373 

A College President, Wilbur 

Fisk. D.D.. Nathan Bangs, B B 374 

A Bishop, Rev. E. S. Janes, 

D.D., LL.D Bev. C. H. Fowler, B.B. , LL.B. . . 381 

A Yt ise and Faithful Ruler 

(Assassinated) President 

Lincoln John McClintock, B.B., LL. B. 386 

A Wife, Mary C. Foss, wife 

of Bishop Foss Albert 8. Bunt, B.B 393 

A Fireman (killed at a fire), 

B. W. Braidwood John Cumming, B.B 400 

A Fisherman (drowned at sesi)Bev. Albert Bibby 406 

A Mere Professor Bev. Wm. 8. Plumer,B.B. , LL. B, 410 

The Sceptic Bev. Jas. Murray, 419 

The Blasphemer Bev. Hugh Hughes, B.B 424 

The Wicked Man's Life Bev. C. H. Spurgeon 430 

A Good Minister, W. T. 

Brantly Bev. Geo. E. Bees 437 

A Statesman, Sir Robert 

Peel Bev. Alexander Fletcher, B.B... 442 

A Calamity (ship burned at 

sea) Bev. Cattley, M.A 448 

The Mysteries of Providence 

(Coal mine disaster) Bev. T. Binney 453 

Sudden Death, Mr. and Mrs. 
P. P. Bliss (Railway acci- 
dent) B. L. Moody 461 

President of the United States 

(assassinated), J.A.Garfield, Wm. M. Taylor, B.B 472 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 

1 On the death of two members of the Evangelical Alliance. 481 

2 On the death of a Bishop and College President 482 

3 On the death of a College Professor 483 

4 On the death of a Pastor 484 

5 On the death of a Member of the School Board 485 

6 On the death of an Editor 485 

7 On the death of a Publisher 486 

8 On the death of a Phvsician 487 

9 On the death of a President of a Board of Trustees 488 

10 On the death of a Knight Templar 488 

11 On the death of a Past-Master of a Lodge 489 

12 On the death of a Freemason 489 

13 On the death of a Military Officer 490 

14 On the death of a Director of an Insurance Company 491 

15 On the death of a Fireman 492 

16 On the death of a Director of an Athenaeum 492 

17 On the death of a Member of a Literary Society 493 

18 On the death of a Student 493 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



CHILDHOOD 



GOD'S LOVE OF LITTLE CHILDREN. 

REV. T. GASQUOINE. 

It is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these 
little ones should perish. — Matt, xviii: 14. 

f~^\ OD loves little children with tenderest, deepest, 
^^ sweetest love. 

I. It is a love of utter unselfishness. It springs out 
of the eternal fountains of loving-kindness. They can- 
nob know him, trust him or love him in return. 

II. God's love of little children is the love of delight 
in them. His delights are with the very youngest of 
them. He rejoices in the life of little children. 

III. His love is a love of compassion towards them. 
If all the promises show his care for the weak and the 
helpless and those exposed to danger, that care must be 
as sensitively towards little children. When Christ was 
upon the earth, his ways with children were full of 

[13] 



14 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

tenderness. When his disciples were disputing who 
should be greatest, he took a child and set him in the 
midst. When his disciples would drive away mothers 
with their children, he took them in His arms and 
blessed them. The very providences of God which be- 
gird the lives of children show his tender compassion 
toward them. 

IV. God's love is the love of trust in the almost infi- 
nite capacities of children. That slightly knowing, 
fully trusting, fitfully loving little child is to become 
the intelligent companion of angels and adoring sprits 
before the throne of God. 

Surely it is "not the will of your father, &c." 



A MOTHER'S SORROW. 

REV. A. S. ROBERTSON. 
Rachel weeping for her children. — Matt, ii: 18. 
HPHIS mother had been dead for centuries ; but 
such a dreadful slaughter had been made of the 
children around her grave that she is represented as 
moved to tears in her tomb and is comfortless in her sor- 
row. Sin always causes tears, but the consideration of 
what Christ has done should always bring comfort. 
"They died for Adam sinned. They live for Jesus 
died." Consiper : 

I. The immediate cause of their being cut off— Christ's 
Incarnation — Matt, ii : 1-16. 

II. The only cause of their salvation — Redemption by 
Christ. Rev. xiv : 4. 

III. They were first fruits to God and the lamb— not 
John Baptist, nor Stephen— but the babes of Bethle- 
hem. Rev. xiv : 4. 



CHILDHOOD. 15 

IV. These are now lambs of the upper fold. In their 

mouth was no guilt. They were only babes two years and 
under — God's celestial family is increased by Herod's 
self-defeating massacre. If they were counted worthy to 
suffer shame for Jesus' name, they surely inherit the 
first fruit of the promised blessedness. 

V. We should keep these babes in remembrance. If 
the woman who poured ointment on Jesus' head has 
her memorial, surely babes whose lives were first sac- 
rificed for Christ should not be forgotten. 

VI. How encouraging the thought, that none shall 
be forgotten, or be unrewarded by God who suffer for 
Christ, and how anxious should we be, to become as little 
children. 

VII. How comforting to the bereaved are these truths. 
Weeping parents should rejoice that their children are 
without fault before the throne. In the innermost 
ranks. "'Now, are they holy." 

VIII. Regard them as " first fruits" of a glorious 
harvest. He who took children in his arms on earth, 
takes them still into his heavenly keeping for eternal 
blessing — now jewels on his bosom. This is the comfort. 

IX. He is willing to take every penitent and present 
him * * faultless, " where all shall be one family in Him. 
There shall be no sorrow there. 



SOME REASONS FOR REMOVAL. 

REV. VAR^UM LI^COHN - . 

1 shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. — 2 Sam. xii: 23. 

TT/'HY take away the little one in the freshness of 

* early dawn, leaving the home desolate, the heart 

sad, and the sweetest hopes forever withered ? We may 

not be able fully to answer \ but there are considerations 



16 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

which mitigate in some measure the overshadowing 
gloom. 

I. The length of a human life is not always the 
measure of its usefulness. A long life is not necessarily 
a useful one. It may be like some long rivers whose 
waters are slow and sluggish, whose banks are low and 
marshy, where the crocodile and the serpent find a home. 
Other lives are short and diminutive like some mountain 
streams, and yet what a work they accomplish — what de- 
light a child brings to a home, what source of pleasure 
to parents and others. It gladdens, refines, elevates. 

II. A child's work on earth is not finished when it 
dies. Its buried body draws the thoughts often to the 
grave. Its soul gone to eternity attracts thoughts and 
affections thitherward. 

It opens the fountains of sympathy in the heart to- 
wards other bereaved ones. Its death becomes a teacher 
of spiritual things and a magnet towards a saving power. 

III. It is removed from the many troubles and temp- 
tations incident to this mortal life. Disease, accident, 
misfortune, poverty, neglect, what sources too of 
moral evil, threatening to deluge the young mind and 
heart. These evils are more fearful than death. It is 
now safe from all moral harm. 

IV. God has called it to a higher and nobler mission 
than any on earth. Who can tell what the spirit of a 
beloved child may be given by God to do in heaven ? 
Something better, at any rate, than he could have per- 
formed here. 

V. The assurance that godly parents shall be reunited 
to their children. " 1 shall go," etc. This is clearly taught. 
God is able thus to comfort us in all tribulations. 



CHILDHOOD. 



17 



THE CHILD GLORIFIED. 

J. SANDERSON", D.D. 
And her child was caught up to God and unto Ms throne. — He v. 

xii: 5. 

TXTHATEVER the primary meaning of these words 
* ' may be, they are especially true when spoken of 
one who has died in infancy. All such are not lost but 
gone before. They are the "lambs of the upper fold," 
whom the good Shepherd has gathered from the hills 
and vales of a land smitten by sin and swept by wintry 
blasts. 

I. The departure of each of these is arranged and 
superintended by God. He has a favor towards them, 
and therefore watches over them, provides for their 
welfare, removes them when he will and sends the angel 
of death to call the spirit home. 

II. They are " caught up " in mercy to them. — Their 
natures are sinful and might develope into awful iniqui- 
ty. Their temptations might be many and strong, and 
to these they might yield. Their disappointments 
might crush their hopes and shade all their prospects. 
Their sorrows might come like "the clouds returning 
after the rain." But God has mercifully spared them 
all these. 

III. Children are " caught up " in mercy and love to 
parents. Beautiful and cherub-like as infants are, 
who can say to what a child may grow ? Cain and 
Absalom and Judas were not less attractive and lovable 
than other children are, but what a grief they must have 
been in after years to their parents. The possibilities of 
an evil nature are fearful to contemplate. 

IV. Children are "caught up" to have God's place 
vacated in the parent's heart. This place is often filled 
by a child or some earthly object. Children are often 



18 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

idolized. It is right to love,but not to idolize — God will 
not permit it. He is a jealous God and must have his 
own place in the heart. 

V. Children are " caught up" to be forever at home 
with God. Here they are away from the Home of the 
Soul — from their Father's house. God wants them with 
Himself — to render them unspeakably happy and have a 
seat with His only-begotten Son on the throne. — " To 
God and to Ms throne." 

Lessons. 

Think not of your child as dead, but living — not as a 
withered bud but as a blooming flower in Paradise. 

Be submissive to the Divine will. God gave. He 
took. He will restore. " He doeth all things well." 

Anticipate reunion in heaven. 

God has a dwelling-place for all his children. 

Look to him for comfort. His promise is "I will be 
with thee in trouble." 



THE MISSING ONE. 

KEV. G. ORME. 
And one is not. — Gen. xlii : 13. 
r PHESE words occur in the story of a family life as it 
is told by some member of the family to another 
who has long been an absentee. It might be repeated in 
many a home, and is true of many a family. " One is 
not." It may be the father or mother, brother or sister, 
or the dear little one. Death has divided them. The 
face will be seen no more. This renders the absence so 
saddening. 

I. How frail and short-lived are all our social pos- 
sessions and delights. The families who may meet at 
any time in the fullest numbers and in the greatest 
gladness may do so no more. One, probably the least 



CHILDHOOD. 19 

likely, may be missing. How dearly we should prize 
our domestic relations, devoutly and gratefully cultivate 
them, and yet not rest in them, nor let them keep us 
back from God. How affectionate should be our de- 
meanor, how pure and sweet and beautiful and happy 
our lives. 

II. The member who " is not," may have his present 
state far in advance of his former one. It was so with 
Joseph, to whom allusion is here made as the missing 
one. And although our missing one may not be per- 
mitted to hold intercourse with us or minister to us, yet 
in his exalted position we may not doubt that he still 
remembers, is in sympathy with us, and may hear 
through our elder Brother of us, or through those blessed 
ones who minister to those who are heirs of salvation. 

III. The prospect of a full and an abiding reunion. 
Joseph had only been taken from them for a time, to 
minister to them in their time of necessity, to prepare 
the way for reunion, and to receive them to himself in 
happier circumstances. So our departed one may not 
be " lost, but gone before," may be the means of drawing 
the affections of those left behind heavenward and thus 
preparing them, through Christ, to leave this the famine 
stricken world, for the land of eternal plenty, and to 
welcome them there to everlasting habitations. As new 
arrivals take place, how the joy of each and of all in- 
creases. How complete the joy when a whole family is 
found there. 

But if any be absent, and as we count up the num- 
ber we have to say, " And one is not," what a drawback 
to the joy of all. 

Let us seek so to live, that we shall appear " a whole 
family in heaven." 



20 MEMORIAL JR1BUTE8. 



AN INFANT'S DEATH NO KEAL LOSS. 

J. SANDERSON, D.D. 
To what purpose is this waste ? — Matt, xxvi : 8. 
n^HE unfeeling question of those who had no sym- 
pathy with Christ or her who had poured her 
precious ointment on His head and feet. A similar 
question may often start to the lip of those who see their 
child laid in the coffin on whom they have lavished the 
wealth of their affection and care. Jesus answers the 
question of both parties, by assuring, there is no waste, 
if their poured-out ointment is expressive of their de- 
votion and affection for him. Although we cannot see 
all the designs of God in any of his dispensations we can 
see enough to satisfy us that " God does all things well." 
There is no waste in a child's death, so far as God's pur- 
pose is concerned, for : 

I. The child has lived to be a demonstration of God's 
fashioning life giving and saving power. No waste, 
though one-third of the human race die in infancy. 

II. No waste, so far as the child's interests are 
concerned. It has lived to be one in the "Kingdom," 
and to be blessed by Christ, to have angels watching it 
as an "heir of salvation," to have the pleasure of exist- 
ence in time, to have the glorious possibilities of eternity, 
to have a body made like Christ's, and a seat with Christ 
on his throne. No waste. 

III. The child has lived for its parents' sake ; to call 
forth their love, to exercise their graces, bind them 
closer in affection to each other, draw out their affec- 
tions more fully to the Giver, make them more devout 
and earnest at the mercy seat, as they feel their increased 
responsibility, and to make them feel more intensely 
their stewardship. No waste. 



CHILDHOOD. 21 

IV. The child's death will be no waste, if hearts be 
softened by the afflictiok, reminded of G-od's cove- 
nant, of the sin that has caused death, and of the uncer- 
tainty of life. If taught not to make any earthly thing a 
portion or an idol, if affection is directed to the other 
world where the soul is, Christ is, and where God is 
gathering his own one by one. If parents are more im- 
pressed that repentance and faith are required of thorn 
if they would join their child again, and hear her speak 
to them in the other world. Sin makes the impassable 
gulf. 

Exercise unfaltering trust in God. Thank him for 
the loan of the child, and that through Christ you can 
rejoin it in that land where parting shall be no more. 



EARLY PIETY. 

REV. J. W. McCREE. 
Thou art my trust from my youth. — Ps. lxxi : 5. 
A RECKLESS child is never a happy child. He 
should be' pleasant, docile, open-hearted, courteous, 
humble, willing to do the least things patiently, wait- 
ing for the time when he shall, by Divine grace, do 
the greatest things. That the young may be brought 
to trust in Christ, they should be treated by the aged 
with great kindness and love. It may be fitting on this 
solemn occasion to say : 

I. They should patiently answer their inquiries. 
Think what a world of wonders this is to the juvenile 
mind. How full the Bible is — teeming with things 
unknown to the youthful soul. Try to satisfy its eager, 
palpitating questions. Every one who will do this in a 
wise, genial spirit will have a rich reward. 

II. They should not frown upon the laughter of the 



22 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

young. Why should not the young laugh, not too 
much, nor too long, nor out of place, but when it is 
timely and innocent, then should the old bear with it 
and share in it. 

III. They should sympathize with the struggles of 
the young. Some young people have a hard life. God- 
less parents, homes without flowers, music, beauty or 
love. Fathers never kiss them, mothers never pray for 
them. Cold walks to work, low wages, tedious hours, 
blustering nights. Who would not pity, help and love 
them and show them all possible kindness ? 

IV. They should rejoice when they rejoice, If they 
are merry, singing for joy, garlanding themselves with 
roses on birthdays, they should not throw "wet blan- 
kets " over their glossy heads and smiling faces. While 
they love and wed and laugh, the aged should not begin 
to prophesy evil concerning them, but turn the water 
into wine at the marriage, bless the feast and be merry, 
and show that God's people are the gentlest, the sweetest 
and the best. 

V. The aged should seek the salvation of the young. 
No parent should rest until all his family are converted 
and in the church of Christ — until even the very lambs 
of the flock are "safe in the arms of Jesus" — His for- 
evermore. 

Some of the young never grow old. Their voices 
ring no more out of cots. Their feet patter no more 
to the door. Their little graves rise amid green grass 
and the heavens shelter their spirits. Wherefore, 
comfort yourselves. There is comfort for us this day, 
when the departed could say, "Thou art my trust from 
my youth." Then death is the gate of life, earth leads 
to heaven, where the young are crowned with knowl- 
edge and joy, where all are immortal and glorious and 
have pleasures forevermore. 



CHILDHOOD. 



THE LESSONS OF GOD'S ROD. 

BY EEV. G. D. MAGKEGOR. 
Hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it. — Micah vi: 9. 
f^\ OD employs many instruments for the instruction 
^* of His children. Scripture, daily blessings, Provi- 
dence, a remarkable Providence as that of the sudden 
death of a young man. 

I. This solemnly speaks to us of the brevity and uncer- 
tainty of human life. This lesson is often sounded in 
our ears and addressed to our hearts. But this 
neglected truth is now loudly proclaimed, not to rob 
the young of the sunshine and joy natural to young 
hearts, but to urge them so to live that to them death 
shall have no terror and no sting. 

II. This speaks to us of the disappointment of the 
brightest hopes. This has often been the theme of the 
moralist, the poet and the preacher. Now it has had an 
impressive illustration. Hopes are all quenched in 
death and buried in an early grave. Have you a hope 
which entereth into that within the veil ? If death 
comes then you will have a prize of infinite worth sub- 
stituted for one only of finite value. No merely earthly 
hope can defy death or bloom beyond the grave. Let 
Christ be the trust and stay and He will endow with a 
hope full of immortality. 

III. This event speaks to us of the mystery of Prov- 
idence. A mystery hi such a death at such a time. 
What power for good possessed ! What service might 
not such a mind have rendered to God and man ! A 
promising life abruptly ended, while thousands of the 
weak and worthless are permitted to live in uselessness 
and in vice. But the Judge of all the earth will do 
right, even though the rightness of this procedure does 



24 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

not reveal itself at once to our feeble reason. We see 
but a small portion of God's complicated plan — the mer- 
est outlines of His picture. In heaven the hopes of 
the believer will find a richer fruition and his powers a 
nobler service than earth could aif ord. 

IV. This event speaks to us of the worth of a Chris- 
tian faith. "We sorrow not as those who have no 
hope." The foundation of this hope is the knowledge 
that the departed lived and died trusting in Him who 
is the "Resurrection and the Life." Merely to remem- 
ber that he had many amiable qualities, etc., would not 
be enough, but the confidence that he was an humble 
disciple of Christ cheers and sustains and casts a bright- 
ness over the grave. Learn the transcendent worth of a 
Christian faith. It supports the dying, comforts the 
bereaved and gives a certainty of a blessed reunion. 
Delay not to exercise faith, but be ye also ready. 



THE FUNERAL TRALST AT NAHST. 

KEY. GEBLEK. 

Luke vii : 11-17. 

HHHE spring season of the year, full of renewal of life, 

beautifully accords with this incident in to-day's 

Gospel. Two processions of human beings meet each 

other at the gates of Nain ; out of the village comes the 

train of death, a corpse in the van ; the procession of 

life approaches toward it ; in the van is the Prince of 

Life, Jesus Christ; the latter does not give way, but 

conquers the former. The funeral procession is changed 

into a mass of happy persons, and with the cheerful 

followers of the Lord from a group of blessed worshippers. 

I. The funeral train which is met by Christ. 



CHILDHOOD. 25 

II. The manner in which the Lord approaches this 
train. 

III. The result. 

I. The procession comes from Nain, which means 
"pleasantness." This entire beautiful earth is only a 
world of death. The corpse is that of a young man — no 
human energy can defy death. The mother is a widow — 
Death is a cruel prince. The accompanying people can 
do nothing but sympathize. This funeral train is a pic- 
ture of devastation and sorrow, and the impotence of man 
in opposition to this power of destruction — where Christ 
has not yet come, e. g., heathen nations. And even now, 
what deep immorality and fear of death where Jesus is 
not known and trusted ! Man without Christ is spirit- 
ually dead. 

II. The Lord beheld and pitied the widowed mother. 
Thus He looks yet on every one whom the stroke of 
death casts into deep sorrow. He speaks to her. Thus 
He comforts us likewise in His word. He touches the 
bier, He does something. And thus, in our day, we 
become acquainted with circumstances which take place 
against all human expectation, and which are proofs of 
the continuous power of the living Christ. 

III. " He that was dead sat up and began to speak." 
Although He does not show His power in this wise any 
more, yet He shows it in different ways. 

(a) Christ stops deaths — this is shown in the history 
of nations which accept Christ (e. g., cannibalism in 
Sandwich Islands). N 

(b) He awakens us from spiritual death. 

(c) He helps us to overcome the terrors and agony of 
death. • 

(d) He will raise up all the dead at the last day. 
"And he delivered him to his mother." Many a 

spiritually dead lost son has Christ restored to his parents 



26 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

(e. g., Augustine and Monica). He will re-unite those 
separated by bodily death. 

Verse 16. Mourners and despairing souls are 
snatched out from depths of grief and despondency, and 
caused to praise God. 

Conclusion. 

If we have Christ in us, we can bring consolation to 
them whom death has deprived of loved ones, and meet 
our own death with composure. May the life of Christ 
become daily stronger in us. 



UNFULFILLED HOPES. 

WILLIAM GEAHAM, D.D. 

1 pray thee let me go over and see the good land that is beyond 

Jordan Thou shalt not go over this Jordan. — Deut. 

iii : 25, 27. 

nPHERE are many things in a man's life which he 
desires, but usually there is some one thing which 
is the supreme good after which he longs. It was 
so with Moses. And yet this is the one thing which 
Cod will not grant. Let us inquire : 

I. What God refuses to grant. Coing over Jordan 
was, it would seem, the only request Cod refused to 
Moses. This refusal was the last trial of his meek soul, 
and he came out of it meeker than he had been before. 
Some one's heart is set upon ambition. But his Water- 
loo comes, he is dethroned forever, and another takes his 
place. Some one has a dear home, idols are there, we do 
not know how much we loved until there is the vision of 
a face darkened under the coffin-lid — Oh ! The cry that 
went forth ere that face paled in death. " Let the dear 
one live." There are many Jordans we pray Cod to 
cross, but we are kept back — hidden hopes blighted, 
secret struggles ending in defeat. Thus also in spirit- 



CHILDHOOD. 27 

ual attainment — some lofty eminence has been aimed 
at, but some sin has clogged our feet. Some tempta- 
tion yielded to has dipt the wings of prayer and faith, 
and we have failed. But we are sometimes never greater 
than in the hour of our defeat — great in humility, in 
acquiescence with God's will — in faith. Stephen, Paul, 
John, Luther, Christ, examples. 

II. Why did God refuse to grant the prayer ? 

1. Because of sin in the case of Moses. And because 
of sin in the death of infants — that sin not their own, 
but of those to whom they are related. There are 
other mysteries connected with such a death which God's 
hand only can unravel. 

2. Because designed to benefit Moses thereby. Moses 
needed this last stroke of God's chisel to clear away his 
last infirmity. He had to die completely to self, and 
this refusal accomplished this. A similar lesson may 
be taught by this death. 

3. Because this refusal lifted him to a nobler eleva- 
tion of character, more unselfish, more divine. Abra- 
ham was thus elevated when he did not withhold his 
son. David, when after Absalom's death, he cried, " Let 
my soul live and I shall praise thee." Paul, when his 
prayer was refused and grace given him to bear the 
thorn. Christ's last act in obedience was when He cried: 
"Not my will but thine be done." 

4. Because it had given Moses an opportunity such 
as he had not before, of honoring God, in the midst of 
disappointment before^ all. He showed that it was easy 
— it was gladness to obey the last command of all — 
to go up to the Mount and die. 

III. Because of refusal, God grants the more. The 
things granted were far better than all he withheld. 

1. There was a larger outpouring of grace into the 
heart of Moses. Grace of forgiveness, of restored joy, 



28 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

of salvation, of broken bones rejoicing, of fresh com- 
munion. God kept his best wine for Moses until now. 

2. There was the speedier crossing of the Jordan of 
death into the life everlasting. The goodly land of 
Lebanon was as nothing to the heavenly, and to the glory 
of God which he would now see. 

3. He did cross the Jordan and stood w r ith Christ 
on the mount of transfiguration 1600 years after. He 
stood there in glory then, and talked with God's own 
Son. God thus gave him an answer exceeding abun- 
dantly above all he asked or thought. 

Let us be patient in affliction. 

* ' He is not dead — the child of your affection — 
But gone unto that school, 

Where he no longer needs your poor protection, 
And Christ himself shall rule." 

Godly sorrow worketh repentance. The time comes 
when we must all cross this Jordan. Let us live upon 
the Mount and grow familiar with the land toward 
which we are going. Christ is on both sides of Jordan. 
Get Him in you, with you, and you are safe. 



THE CHILD IN GLOKY. 

KEV. THOKNLEY SMITH. 

Neither can tliey die any more ; for they are equal unto the 
angels ; and are the children of God, being the children of the resur- 
rection. — Luke xx: 36. 

HPHESE are remarkable words. The present condition 
-*- of every human being is a very humiliating one, 
but it is only for a little while that any of the children 
of men can dwell in these tabernacles of flesh and this 
vale of tears. This condition shall soon be exchanged 



CHILDHOOD. 29 

by the saved for a better. A little lower than the angels 
now, each of the children of God shall then be equal 
with the angels and the angel's heaven shall be theirs for 
ever. And while this is true of all the good it is equally 
true of the little ones whom God calls to the better 
world. They too " shall be equal unto the angels." 

I. Equal unto them in holiness. Look at the angels 
as they stand before the throne, as they minister to the 
saints, as they bear the spirits of the redeemed into the 
presence of their Lord ! How radiant they are ! How 
fair ! How beautiful ! Their robes are robes of dazzling 
light and upon them is neither stain nor speck. And 
yet the redeemed, even the little ones of the flock of 
Jesus, are equal to them — yea, they shall shine in brighter 
lustre and be conspicuous among the cherubs, who shall 
rejoice in the companionship of these young immortals 
and recognize them as friends. 

II. Equal unto them in intelligence. However wise 
angels of God may be, and however deep and profound 
their knowledge of God and of his works and ways may 
be, yet even infants of humanity shall become equal un- 
to them. What discoveries they shall make, what mys- 
teries they shall solve and what glories will burst upon 
their sight when they enter the spirit- world. They may 
not indeed immediately and at once be equal to the an- 
gels, but they shall soar into their domain, stand on their 
platform, take a place by their side, eventually out-soar 
the flight of the first-born seraph and stand nearer to the 
throne than Gabriel hirnself. They will know, as angels 
cannot know, practically and experimentally the mys- 
teries of redeeming love. 

III. Equal unto them in happiness and joy. Angels 
are happy because they are holy and therefore enjoy the 
felicity of immediate fellowship with God. But every 
child "caught up to God and to his throne," will be holy 



30 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

and will join in the songs of the harpers before the 
throne, only in the chorus of which angels can unite. 
No seraph can be more joyous than the ransomed spirit 
of a child. 

IV. Equal unto them in immortality. "Neither can 
they die any more." Angels never die. Their nature is 
incorruptible, and they are as vigorous and strong to-day 
as when first they came from the Creator's hands. And 
paralleled with angels will be glorified children. 
Immortality is stamped upon their soul — and the body 
resurrected and made like Christ's, will equal the exis- 
tence of angels. Conscious personal existence for ever 
with the Lord is the privilege of every infant caught up 
to glory. 

What lessons these thoughts suggest. They speak to 
us : 

1. Of our dignity. However sinful, weak, dying 
man now is, even the babes of the household shall one 
day be equal unto angels — the nobility of heaven. 

2. Of our hopes. Our privilege is ever to be looking 
upward — however sorrowful now, anticipate the blessed- 
ness awaiting those, even babes, who enter the city of the 
skies. 

3. Of our business — to become like little children, to 
be saved like them through grace, for only then can any 
of us become equal unto the angels that stand in the 
presence of the King. 



Those laughing eyes of thine fair child 

God never wished to weep; 
Ere smiles had lied, the shadows fell 

Of death's long, silent sleep. 



CHILDHOOD. 31 



DEATH ON A SUMMER DAY. 

BEV. W. FOKSYTH. 

He sat on her knees till noon and tlien died. — 2 Kings iv: 26. 

T^HERE are times when many days of sunshine and 
joy succeed each other, and others when in a single 
day there seems concentrated the joy or sorrow of a year. 
This occurred to the family at Shunem. A child had 
been given when they were hopeless of offspring. He 
was the mother's joy and pride, had taken away her 
reproach. His fellowship was her delight and his future 
the dearest hope of her life. He grew in beauty by her 
side and filled her house with glee, and on a summer 
day when all was life and gladness in the harvest field 
he visited his father among the reapers. How happy 
that father as he walked hand in hand with his boy 
amid the yellow corn, the innermost thought of his heart 
being, "May the God of Jacob bless the lad." There 
and then death met him, when the sun was high and 
hot, the lad suddenly cried, My head." Learn : 

I. Sorrow may come at the most unlikely time. There 
may be darkness at noon. Thunder out of a clear sky. 
The happiest home darkened suddenly by sorrow and the 
shadow of death. 

II. Sorrow may spring from the most unlikely source. 
From a fountain of joy and a well of delight. The sudden 
cry of agony is from' a child, buoyant, playful, full of 
life. How strange the association at such a time — child- 
hood and pain. Here are the ravages of sin. Rom. v: 14. 
How in the presence of such sufferings are we humbled 
and awed before God. 

III. Sorrow may come in the midst of innocent labor. 
Work is going on according to God's ordinance in the 



32 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

harvest field. Old and young cheerfully engage in the 
reaping work. No work more wholesome or pure. The 
simplicity and purity of the olden time characterize the 
reapers. Yet death invades this busy, joyous scene. What 
place is safe ? What people or work have an immunity 
from trouble ? The trail of the serpent is over them all. 

IV. The effect of this sudden sorrow. The father's 
heart is pierced as with a sword by that cry of pain. He 
feels stunned, is helpless, but he knows where love and 
help and comfort abide for a child when weary of learn- 
ing, or faulty, or pained, or stricken by sickness. " Carry 
him to his mother." Everything with her must give place 
to the little invalid. "His mother" — true refuge for 
the weary — safe resting-place for the sick and dying 
child. Mark: 

What a change from the morning. Left home full of 
life and frolic, returns helpless, unconscious, dying. How 
startling to the mother was that pale countenance of 
her boy as she received him on her knees ! How often 
had she dandled him and kissed him while there before. 
How she now hoped against hope ! What suspense was 
hers during the closing minutes of that forenoon. "He 
sat on her knees till noon and then died." 

None but a mother's heart knows the terrible distress 
of such a moment in such a scene. Her sun had gone 
down at noon. How tumultuous the thoughts that 
crowded her soul ! How great the trial to her faith ! 
God seemed to have forsaken her that moment. 

V. Mark the resuscitation of her faith and hope. God 
lives and all is not lost, is her recovering thought. She 
strengthens her heart in God. Hurries to her prophet — 
makes her passionate appeal to him. Hope springs up 
again in her heart. Nothing is too hard for the Lord. 

How strange and solemn the scenes in that chamber 
of death when the prophet of the Lord stretches himself 



CHILDHOOD. 33 

on that child. How wonderful the revival. What 
joyous scenes in that Hebrew home that evening, 

What lessons for us. The uncertainty of earthly 
things — the power of faith. The willingness of G-od to 
help — the certainty of a resurrection, the joy and glad 
ness at the reunion on the morning of the last day. 



THE SHUNAMITE AND HER SON. 

JOHN BRUCE, D.D. 

Is it well with the child? And slie answered, It is well. — 2 Kings 
iv : 26. 

r PHIS story has soothed the spirit of many a parent, 
and is still fraught with consolation. The story sug- 
gests : 

I. The Shunamite though a godly person was not ex- 
empt from family bereavement. She had one on whom 
her affections centred, and who was dear to her, even as 
her own soul. To him she clung as one of the chief 
sources of her enjoyment, and as one whose life seemed 
indispensable to her own. Yet in accordance with the 
sovereign purpose of God, she was called to part with 
this child. In the morning he is with her and she de- 
lights to look upon his opening charms and to indulge 
in fond anticipations of the future. At noon he is 
struck down by the hand of death, and is no longer hers. 
"When the child wasxgrown, etc." 

A visitation like that of the Shunamite, is not un- 
common with the people of God. The grim messenger 
enters their dwelling and commits his ravages on those 
whom they love. Darkness forthwith covers their taberna- 
cle and the cheerful household hum is hushed. This is the 

law of nature acting according to the appointment of 
2* 



34 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

God — " By one man, etc." When parents see their ten- 
der flowers blighted and cut down, it well becomes them 
to think of sin, as that which brought death into the 
world and all our woe. But when they think of death 
through the first man, they may think of life through the 
second man Christ Jesus. 

II. The Shunamite, though a pious woman, was deep- 
ly grieved by the loss of her child. When Elisha saw her, 
he saw grief depicted on her countenance ; and when he 
saw Gehazi annoyed her with his importunity, his lan- 
guage was, " Let her alone, for her soul is vexed within 
her." And why should not Christians grieve for the loss 
of their dear children ? It is only when grief becomes 
immoderate, or when mourning is accompanied by mur- 
muring, that it is offensive to God. It is chiefly because 
bereavements awaken sorrow, that they lead us to see 
our need of God and to seek for satisfaction from higher 
sources than the world with all its transient joys. 

III. The Shunamite amidst her affliction, betook her- 
self to God. Elisha was not only a man of God but a 
prophet signally attested by Jehovah. In a certain sense 
he was the the medium of intercourse between God and 
man. To him the Shunamite came in this her hour of 
need — unbosomed all her sorrow and looked for the con- 
solation she required. The restoration of the child 
seemed needful to the realization of the promise that had 
been made to her. The Christian parent should go to 
God in the season of bereavement. "He knows our 
frame," sympathizes, pours the balm of consolation into 
the wounded spirit. He does not afflict willingly, has 
gracious designs, assures that afflictions " yield the 
peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are 
exercised thereby." He leads forth by the right way. 

IV. The Shunamite acquiesced in the bereaving dis- 
pensation, painful though it was. When Gehazi met her 



CHILDHOOD. 35 

and accosted her in those courteous terms . . . "Is 
it well with the child ? She answered, It is well." True, 
her beloved child had been removed from her ; after a 
short, but severe conflict with trouble he had closed 
his eyes in death. And as a consequence of this her 
tender heart was wrung with anguish and her soul was 
vexed within her. But still she could say "it is well." 
She saw the hand of her God and Father in the trying 
dispensation, and, like Job, she bowed with holy sub- 
mission knowing that all was truth and mercy sure. It 
should not require many words to persuade bereaved par- 
ents, that with them also it is well. 

Fond parent, look to thy child in its glorified state, 
for "of such is the kingdom of heaven." Think of him 
as raised above all sorrow, and suffering, and imper- 
fection, and mingling with the innumerable company of 
the redeemed. 

" Forgive, blest shade, the tributary tear, 
That mourns thine exit from a world like this : 

Forgive the wish that would have kept thee here, 
And stayed thy progress to the realms of bliss." 



THE CHILD AND THE FATHER'S CUP. 

THEO. L. CUTLER, D.D. 

Jesus took a little child and set him in the midst of them. — Matt. 
\xviii : 2. 

'"PHIS was done to rebuke the selfish ambition of His 
disciples. Children are still placed in houses to be 
teachers as well as to be taught themselves. No house 
is " furnished " until God in his loving kindness sets a 
little child in the midst of it. They teach lessons. 

I. Patience. A virtue that some are slow in acquir- 



36 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

ing. None can teach it better than a helpless, depend- 
ent and often wayward and exacting child. "Bear with 
me," is the meaning of its long wakeful nights and 
peevish cry, and of its dullness in getting its lessons. 
If telling the same thing unsuccessfully for eleven times 
remember the twelfth time you may succeed. God is 
patient with us, He would have us patient with our 
children. 

II. They teach us our faults. They are household 
mirrors to reflect our faults. Their ebullitions of temper 
show how ridiculous ours are. We are photographed on 
them. This family likeness is sometimes frightful. 
Think that in every fault of theirs you see yourself as in 
a looking-glass. 

III. They show us our graces. By seeking Jesus 
they follow the example set by father or mother, or 
both — so also when they consecrate themselves to God 
and confess Christ, they are only reflecting in their own 
lives, our lives. In like manner is their after career of 
usefulness and honor. If we are properly taught by our 
children on earth, and we teach them the way of life, 
our reward will be that Jesus will set our child in the 
midst of us in heaven. 

God often calls these children home. This is the 
bitter cup he gives us to drink. He knows our soul's 
disease. He is the wisest and best of physicians, never 
selects the " wrong bottle," and never gives one drop too 
much of the corrective medicine. He does all things 
well. His children must trust their Father. He 
chastens for our profit that we may be partakers of his 
holiness. 

God sees that some one in the family has need of his 
spiritual skill — from indulged sin, from weakening of 
the graces, and He gives a cup of bitter disappointment 
— the gourd that was so grateful and refreshing withers. 



CHILDHOOD. 



37 



Patient submission, humble acquiescence, and unfalter- 
ing trust and hope are the lessons God would teach and 
what the soul's disease requires. If the cup had not 
been drank the blessings would have been lost ; if the 
child had not died, the idol would have been en- 
throned. 

God's cups may be bitter, and you may be long in 
draining them, at the bottom lies a precious blessing. 
Eich graces lie there. For this reason the "trial "of 
faith is precious. So Abraham and Job and all God's 
children have found it. 

Be not surprised when God mixes such a bitter cup 
for you as the death of a child. You need that 
medicine. The best tonic medicines are bitter. They 
have a merciful purpose. It is your Father's cup. 
Drink it, unhesitatingly, uncomplainingly, and with 
the spirit of that Beloved Son, who said, " Not my will 
but thine be done." 



EARLY DEATH. 

BY J. K. MACDUFF, D.D. 
The righteous is taken away from the evil to come, etc. — Isa. 57: 1, 2. 
npHE young king Josiah, who ascended the throne of 
Judah at the tender age of eight, is considered to be 
the righteous one here specially referred to. He proved 
himself the most godly of his royal race. 2 Kings 23 : 
25. At the age of sixteen he was brought by means of 
perusal of the Divine Law under the fervid power of per- 
sonal piety and from that day onwards, during a memor- 
able decade, he became priest and king in one. He swept 
away every vestige of idolatry and restored the purity of 
the Temple- Worship. 

But, strange, mysterious dispensation ! Just when in 



38 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

the flower of his youth and when his people were prosper- 
ing in peace and piety he is brought bleeding and wounded 
from the battle-field and dies in his chariot, ere he can 
reach his palace in Jerusalem. The national grief was 
deep and intense, and a national dirge composed by Jere- 
miah was for many years sung on the spot where he re- 
ceived the fatal wound, the best choristers of Israel 
tendering their services on the occasion. 

Josiah's case is not singular. The book of memory 
will reveal many whose young and cherished names are 
written upon grave-stones. Such early removal forms a 
problem insoluble by our poor reason. We can under- 
stand the removal of the hoary-headed sinner and of the 
aged Christian, but the Josiahs of early and brilliant 
promise and the Lazaruses, the young life and light 
of the Bethany homes — where is the wisdom or the love 
in stripping the temple of its pillars, " Beauty and 
Strength"? 

The words of Isaiah give a twofold answer to these 
questions and mysteries. The 

1st. Negative. " The righteous is taken away from 
the evil to come." It was so in the case of Josiah. Why 
is the " staff broken and the beautiful rod" might have 
been the sorrowful inquiry of both the Israelites and 
of Josiah. But they were all in ignorance of the future. 
He and they had mercifully not revealed to them the 
impending invasion of the armies of Babylon and the 
miseries which were entailed on his unhappy city and 
country. Jeremiah refers to this in his 22 chap. G-od 
does not disguise from the young king the reason of his 
early departure. 2 Kings 22 : 18-20. What was true of 
Josiah's early death is applicable to all. Often, when we 
can see no love or kindness or wisdom in these early 
graves, it is because the morrow to us is mercifully 
veiled. Who can tell if the loved and early lost had 



CHILDHOOD. 39 

been spared, what trials might have been in reserve for 
them, or what sins and temptations might have over- 
taken them ? Better the brief loan with its hallowed 
and undarkened memories than the prolonged life with 
its possible evils — " taken away from the evil to 
come." 

II. The words of the prophet give a positive expla- 
nation. "He shall enter into peace, etc." This Josiah 
did. This is one of the beautiful Old Testament evi- 
dences of the immediate blessedness of the departed 
righteous. The body rested as in a bed, the spirit that 
walked uprightly on earth continues, in a loftier state of 
existence, this elevated walk. The work cut short in 
this world is not arrested, it is only transferred. The 
merciful are "gathered," as a better translation has it; 
not wrenched away, but gathered to unite in the wor- 
ship of the great congregation in the upper sanctuary. 
Let us listen to the whispering of angels around the 
pillows of the early departing ones. "He shall enter 
into peace." "He shall walk in his uprightness." 

Besides, the "righteous" survive dissolution even in 
this world, in their deathless memories of goodness and 
worth, they continue to " walk." The uprightness is 
not laid by with their funeral shroud, or merely carved 
in the epitaph on their grave-stones. No! it lives. The 
sun has vanished, but the glow still reddens the moun- 
tains and glorifies the evening clouds. It was so with 
Josiah. 2 Ohron. 35, 26. His deeds were also written deep 
on the nation's heart, and in imperishable memorial in the 
chronicles of the great and good of all time. " Early," 
when applied to death, is a term only relative to the 
body ; the spirit, the character, the man, still lives, and 
the old promise becomes literally true regarding those 
prematurely taken away — " with long life will I satisfy 
him and show him my salvation." "He asked life of 



40 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

thee and thou gavest it to him, even length of days for 
ever and ever. Ps. 21 : 4. 



THE TEACHING OF A CHILD'S DEATH. 

WM. M. TAYLOK, D.D. 

Can 1 bring Mm back again ? 1 shall go to him, but lie shall not 
return to me. 2 Sam. xii : 23. 

QICKNESS had come into the Palace. "The Lord 
^ struck the child." David was greatly distressed by 
this event. Not only was he saddened by the sufferings 
of the child, but because Nathan had specially connected 
all the pangs of the child with David's sin. Hence 
every quiver of pain the infant gave was a new needle- 
point thrust into his own conscience. David betook 
himself to God in prayer, while the sickness lasted. 
This shows that David was God's child, though he had 
sinned. He besought God both for himself (Ps. vi: 1-4) 
and for the child. Though he had been told that the 
child would die, he yet besought God for its life. 
There is always " who can tell," what God may do. 

The child died, and when David knew it he came to 
his house, asked for bread and ate it. His servants 
required an explanation, and here it is, showing the 
strength of his character and the firmness of his faith 
in a future life. " While the child, &c." 

David's resignation was the result of his persuasion 
of the happiness* of his departed child and of his humble 
hope of joining him therein. Practical teachings. 

I. The illness and death of little children may be in- 
timately connected with the conduct and spiritual history 
of the parents. They belong indeed to a tainted race, 
and their death shows their connection with Adam ; 



CHILDHOOD. 41 

but it may also be caused or connected with the 
character of their immediate parents. Their death may 
be the penal consequences of their sins, or it may occur 
to lead them to thoughtfulness and to quicken their 
spiritual life. They may have been permitting the world 
to have too large a share of their attention, or permitting 
themselves to become enslaved by some degrading habit, 
or they may be unconverted. The death of infants may 
have a corrective, restrictive or preventive power on 
the parents or other members of the family. 

II. The surest solace under the affliction and death 
of infants is in God. David has recourse to prayer, and 
what he sought for was not granted, but he got strength to 
bear the stroke. It would not have been good either for 
himself or his people to have had his prayer literally 
granted. But his tears of weakness had brought down 
God's strength. Let us, in all trials, repair to the 
"mercy seat." 

III. We may cherish the most unwavering assurance 
of the salvation of those who die in infancy. David's 
words teach this. He, under the Jewish dispensation, 
had the fullest persuasion of the eternal welfare of his 
baby boy. There, are several things recorded which 
tend to make the doctrine of infant salvation perfectly 
indubitable. 

Over and above the fact that they have not com- 
mitted actual transgression and do not personally 
deserve condemnation, and may be presumably regarded 
as included in the prdvisions of the covenant of grace ; 
there are certain things which place this doctrine beyond 
all question. There seems : 

1. A moral impossibility involved in the very thought 
of infants being consigned to perdition. They have 
neither memory nor conscience, the elements in the 
punishment of the lost. 



42 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

2. There are positive indications that infants are in- 
cluded in the work of Christ. There is no passage in 
which it is stated in so many words, but many passages 
which very clearly imply it. Thus Jesus said of infants, 
"of such is the kingdom of heaven," meaning "of 
these is the kingdom of heaven," and for this reason 
He took up little children in his arms. 

3. The tone and spirit of the gospel favors the idea of 
infant salvation. The Saviour was peculiarly tender to 
the little ones. It was foretold that He should carry 
the lambs in his bosom, and his infinite atonement would 
be shorn of half its glory if it were not available for little 
children. 

Let us consider to whom they have gone. They have 
been taken to the arms of Jesus and to the bright glory 
of the heavenly state. Let us consider from what they 
have oeen taken. They have been removed from earth 
with its pains and privations, its sufferings and sorrows, 
and from the spiritual dangers with which the world is 
environed. Perhaps they would have fallen. A living 
cross is heavier than a dead one. 

Let us consider for what our little ones have leen 
taken away. Perhaps we have been wandering away 
from Christ, or we may have never known Him, or this 
may have been the case with some member of the family. 
G-od has taken the child away to bring us back, or to 
bring us to Himself. Why then shall we repine ? 

Let us consider how this bereavement will appear to 
us when we come to die ourselves. The great concern 
then will be about those we are leaving behind us. 
There will be no anxiety about those who have gone 
before. 

The appropriation of these consolations implies that 
we ourselves are journeying heavenwards, "I shall go to 
him." The departed child is in heaven. Are you 



CHILDHOOD. 



43 



advancing towards heaven ? If not, these comforts are 
not yours, and a great gulf will be eternally fixed between 
you and your child. Let then the memory of your 
departed little ones stir you up into religious earnestness. 
Do not resist the appeal. 



A CHILD'S TRUE ESTIMATE. 

ANONYMOUS. 
A little child shall lead them. — Isa. vi: 6. 
HHHESE words were written to illustrate the great 
-*- quiet that shall fall upon this troubled earth when 
the Redeemer's Kingdom is fully prevalent on the earth. 
So docile will even wild beasts be that a little child shall 
lead them without fright or danger. Little children it 
will be seen, by revelation, have a large place in the 
revelation and purpose of God. They are included in 
the Covenants, are made the subjects of circumcision, 
are given by promise and granted in answer to prayer, 
are accepted as objects of consecration, raised from the 
dead, nurtured by angels. The cry of little Ishmael — 
outside of the Special Covenant as he was — touched the 
heart of God as well as the heart of Hagar his mother. 
In the New Testament their privileges are unrevoked. 
The promise is unto us and to our children. We find 
that touching act of Jesus taking little children in his 
arms and blessing them and leaving to his church the 
sufferance that little children should come unto him 
without hindrance. We find them declared to be capa- 
ble of receiving blessing, even though but infants, 
children without speech. He who gives them knows the 
avenues by which their souls are reached, and how as 
their great High Priest to apply to them the blood of 



44 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

everlasting cleansing. It is to the Bible we owe our 
estimate of their worth, and the lesson that, however 
young they may be called away, they have not lived in 
vain. Then are two thoughts in our text. 

1st. The child-measure. There have been two nota- 
ble ways of estimating the value of a human soul. 

1. What the soul is able to accomplish. This was 
the old Roman conception. Power to do was the ex- 
ponent of the Roman mind. Scripture has recognized 
this characteristic of Roman civilization and presented 
the Messiah in Mark's gospel as the man of power. He 
is the great hero who conquers diseases, demons and 
death and whose earthly mission was that of Conqueror 
of a lost and ruined world. A Roman mother, rather 
than see her child grow up a coward, would gladly see 
him impale himself upon his own sword. 

2d. God's standard of measurement is, not what the 
soul does, but what the soul is. It is no thought of the 
Bible that those who die in cradles are less to be noticed 
than those who go up from gory fields, etc. God measures 
the soul not by what it has been able to accomplish, not by 
the figure it has been able to cut in the drama of existence. 
It is like gold, precious for its sake. God has tempered the 
soul to the economy of its earthly existence. Few souls 
ever live to magnify themselves by deeds. Many fall 
still-born into the grave. Many before they find utterance 
for their thoughts. Many before they answer the roll-call 
of public duty. Others are born to that weakness of 
mind which makes necessary our hospitals for the 
idiotic and insane. Well has God said, " Not by works, 
lest any man should boast." He looks not to deeds, but 
to the soul. Hope may be written over the grave in 
which lies the late occupant of a crib, as well as the recent 
occupant of a throne. Herod who slew the Judean 
children was more merciful than he who teaches that 



CHILDHOOD. 



45 



God saves on account of what we do. For if this be 
true, where are the children ? They are without gospel 
— left as lambs for the slaughter — left without any 
fellowship with the holy child Jesus. But if we take the 
soul itself as the standard by which human existence is to 
be valued, we thereby get a standard by which the value of 
every human existence may be computed. Then one 
touch of the finger of grace removes the stains which 
have dimmed the divine image and superscription upon 
an infant's soul. In it was the breath of God, before 
it lies the blood of Christ and beyond this blood lie the 
boundless steeps which lead up to the lofty perfections 
of Jehovah. It has responded to the purpose of him 
who called it into being. It tarried a second or two on 
the threshold, God's angels lifted the everlasting doors 
of grace and glory, and it entered the last penetralia of 
the future. Thus the precious word of God has given 
us a scheme of grace which reaches to the youngest 
child. 

II. Children have a mission, not of deeds but of in- 
fluence. It is difficult to define influence. It is an in- 
visible power which by subtle methods moves us to action 
or serves as a restraint. The world owes a great debt to 
children for their unconscious and largely unintentional 
influence. By it they radiate and bless the world. 

The great lesson of self-sacrifice is learned from their 
presence, a lesson which is seldom learned in any house- 
hold where the cry of a child is not frequently heard. 
No other animal comes into time-relations with so much 
peril. No man can compute the sacrifices, weigh the sighs 
or bottle the tears which parents give to their offspring. 

Many a spring of tenderness too has been opened by 
a child which every other influence has seemed power- 
less to open. Many a falling house has thus been kept 
together. Society would be honey-combed into absolute 



46 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

pleasure-seeking or money-making or self-seeking if the 
influence of children were removed. Even their depart- 
ure makes the world assume something of that true 
aspect which God has given it in his word, and heaven 
is anchored to many a heart more peacefully and hope- 
fully because of the children that are there. Many a 
time has the Great Shepherd led his children nearer the 
eternal world by carrying a lamb or two ahead as fresh 
challenges to the parents to follow after. " A little child 
shall lead them." We should take the language of the 
Shunamite woman to express our allegiance to the Divine 
government in the day of our bereavement. "It is well" 
with child, father, mother — not because joarental instinct 
had perished, or because the child was less loved than 
before. But it is well, because God's ways are always 
right — because another has been delivered from the evil 
that is in the world — because it is no small thing that 
God puts everlasting honor upon our children, because 
it is not a thing for comfortless grief that Jesus suffers 
little children to come to him. 

The keeper of the vineyard takes away the twig for 
the deeper rooting and fruitfulness of the vine, and we 
know his wisdom and answer not a word. 

Is it not time that the family should be gathering on 
the hill-tops of glory ? That your house on high be 
furnished — that your mansion should be decorated with 
those blossoms which have been your delight on earth ? 
May their going be the means of deeper meditation on 
the excellence of eternal things. 



CHILDHOOD. 47 



HOME BEREAVEMENTS. 

HENRY WAED BEECHER. 

Remarks made at the funeral of a child in Plymouth Church, 
Brooklyn. 

YTTID are joined together, many of us, by a common 
experience. Many of us have met in each 
others' houses and in each others' company on just such 
errands of grief and sympathy and Christian triumph as 
this. How many of us have sent children forward ; and 
how many of us feel to-day that all things are for our 
sakes ; and that those things which for the present are 
not joyous but grievous, nevertheless work in us the 
peaceable fruit of righteousness ! So we stand in what 
may be called a relationship of grief. We are knit to- 
gether and brought into each others' company by the 
ministration of grief, made Christian and blessed. 

To be sure, if we were to ask this life what would be 
best, there is no father, there is no mother, who would 
not plead with all the strength which lies in natural 
affection, " Spare me, and spare mine." For the out- 
ward man this is reasonable and unrebukable ; and yet, 
if it be overruled by Him who loves us even better than 
He loves his own life, then there comes the revelation of 
another truth : namely, that the things which are seen 
are the unreal things, and that the real things are the 
things which are invisible. 

When our children that are so dear to us are plucked 
out of our arms, and carried away, we feel, for the time 
being, that we have lost them, because our body does 
not triumph ; but are they taken from our inward man ? 
Are they taken from that which is to be saved — the spirit- 
ual man ? Are they taken from memory ? Are they taken 
from love ? Are they taken from the scope and reach of 



48 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

the imagination, which in its sanctified form, is only 
another name for faith ? Do we not sometimes dwell 
with them more intimately than we did when they were 
with us on earth ? The care of them is no longer ours, 
that love-burden we bear no longer, since they are with 
the angels of God and with God ; and we shed tears over 
what seems to be our loss ; but do they not hover in the 
air over our heads ? And to-day could the room hold 
them ail ? 

As you recollect, the background of the Sistine 
Madonna, at Dresden (in some respects the most wonder- 
ful picture of maternal love- which exists in the world), 
for a long time was merely dark ; and an artist, in 
making some repairs, discovered a cherub's face in the 
grime of that dark background ; and being led to sus- 
pect that the picture had been overlaid by time and neg- 
lect, commenced cleansing it ; and as he went on, cherub 
after cherub appeared, until it was found that the Ma- 
donna was on a background made up wholly of little 
heavenly cherubs. 

Now, by nature motherhood stands against a dark 
background ; but that background being cleaned by the 
touch of God, and by the cleansing hand of faith, we 
see that the whole heaven is full of little cherub faces. 
And to-day it is not this little child alone that we look 
at, which we see only in the outward guise ; we look 
upon a background of children innumerable, each one as 
sweet to its mother's heart as this child has been to its 
mother's heart, each one as dear to the clasping arms of 
its father as this child has been to the clasping arms of 
its father ; and it is in good company. It is in a spring- 
land. It is in a summer-world. It is with God. You 
have given it back to Him who lent it to you. 

Now, the giving back is very hard, but you cannot 
give back to God all that you received with your child. 



CHILDHOOD. 49 

You cannot give back to God those springs of new and 
deeper affection which were awakened by the coming of 
this little one. You cannot give back to God the experi- 
ences which you have had in dwelling with your darling. 
You cannot give back to God the hours which, when you 
look upon them now, seem like one golden chain of 
linked happiness. 

You are better, you are riper, you are richer, even in 
this hour of bereavement, than you were. God gave ; 
and he has not taken away except in outward form. He 
holds, he keeps, he reserves, he watches, he loves. You 
shall have again that which you have given back to him 
only outwardly. 

Meanwhile, the key is in your hand ; and it is not a 
black iron key ; it is a golden key of faith and love. 
This little child has taught you to follow it. There will 
not be a sunrise or a sunset when you will not in imagina- 
tion go through the gate of heaven after it. There is 
no door so fast that a mother's love and a father's love 
will not open it and follow a beloved child. And so, by 
its ministration, this child will guide you a thousand 
times into a realization of the great spirit-land, and into 
a faith of the invisible, which will make you as much 
larger as it makes you less dependent on the body, and 
more rich in the fruitage of the spirit. 

To-day, then, we have an errand of thanksgiving. 
We thank God for sending this little gift into this 
household. We thank God for the light which he kin- 
dled here, and which burned with so pure a flame, and 
taught so sweet a lesson. And we thank God, that, 
when this child was to go to a better place, it walked so 
few steps, for so few hours, through pain. Men who 
look on the dark side shake the head, and say, " Oh, 
how sudden !" but I say, Since it was to go, God be 
thanked that it was permitted to pass through so brief a 
3 



50 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

period of suffering ; that there were no long weeks or 
months of gradual decay and then a final extinction ; 
that out of the fullness of health it dropped into the full- 
ness of heaven, leaving its body as it lies before you to- 
day a thing of beauty. Blessed be G-od for such mercy 
in the ministration of sickness and of departure. 

I appreciate your sorrow, having myself often gone 
through this experience ; and I can say that there is no 
other experience which throws such a light upon the 
storm-cloud. We are never ripe till we have been made 
so by suffering. We belong to those fruits which must 
be touched by frost before they lose their sourness and 
come to their sweetness. I see the goodness of God in 
this dispensation as pointing us toward heaven and im- 
mortality. In this bereavement there is cause for re- 
joicing ; for sure it is that you and your child shall meet 
again never to be separated. 



INFANT SALVATION. 

REV. CHARLES A. EVANS. 

Whosoever shall not receive the Tcindgom of God as a, little child, shall 
in no wise enter tlierein. Luke xviii : 17. 

/"^TJR text, on the authority of our Lord, teaches one 
^^^ of the most consoling, supporting, heart-cheering 
doctrines to the bereaved parent, that is contained in 
the holy scriptures — that is, that little children are 
redeemed and glorified. That this is the doctrine of the 
text is indisputably clear, both from the connection in 
which it stands, and also from the meaning of the 
phrase " Kingdom of God." In the preceding context, 
the Saviour made use of a parable, in order to convince 
the Jews of the impossibility of being justified by works, 



CHILDHOOD. 51 

or self-righteousness ; and having thus presented to the 
Pharisees this truth, immediately infant children were 
brought that he might bless them. This no doubt was 
a custom among believing Jews then, and based on 
that prophetical promise in Isaiah, 44th chapter, 3rd 
verse, and was to be fulfilled in gospel days — "I will 
pour out my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon 
thine offspring." Having taken them in his arms and 
blessed them, saying, "for of such is the Kingdom of 
God," he subjoins in application to the Pharisees, 
"Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a 
little child, shall in no wise enter therein." The 
Pharisee boasted of his own righteonsness, as the ground 
on which he should be justified, and admitted to the 
Kingdom of Glory ; and Christ immediately applies the 
case of the infant as regards the grounds of its salvation, 
to show the proud Pharisee that his theory of salvation 
is false, and that in order to be saved he must renounce 
all self, humble himself, and if he will be saved, receive 
Heaven as the infant child receives it. Now the ques- 
tion arises, how does the infant receive the glories of 
Heaven ? The word receive clearly implies that it is a 
gift of its Heavenly Pather ; and indeed this is the in- 
variable teaching of God, both in regard to infants and 
adults. " By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be 
justified in the sight of God," "by grace are you 
saved," or, as the word grace means, unmerited favor. 
To sum up the matter, it is as if Christ had said, Boast- 
ing Pharisee, whoever you are, unless you renounce 
merit on your part, and receive Heaven as an unmerited 
gift of God, through Jesus Christ, to the lost sinner, 
you can never enter therein. Just as these little 
children who have never done good or evil personally, 
(though federally sinners,) will be admitted to Heaven ; 
for, having no merit to plead, they receive glory as a 



52 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

gift of mercy. That this is the true interpretation, both 
of the text and context, we think is very clear, as the 
term or phrase "Kingdom of Heaven" here cannot 
mean any other than the Kingdom of Glory, and har- 
monize with the context, and the design of the Saviour. 

Besides, the language is not this little child, but a 
little child; meaning any or every little child indefinitely. 
" Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a 
little child," etc. This is a doctrine not of modern date, 
nor of man's invention. It has been advocated in all 
periods of the Christian dispensation, as appears from 
the history of the church, and no doubt it never was 
disputed until the church was corrupted with heresy. 

The probability is, that the opposite opinion orig- 
inated with Papacy, and was afterwards abetted by all of 
like sentiment ; holding either to baptismal regenera- 
tion, or good works in order to salvation, or perhaps to 
both. 

My object is, first, to give you a brief history of this 
doctrine with argumental proof of its truth ; secondly, 
the probable reasons that infants are translated to 
heaven in infancy. And in the last place, make an 
application. 

First then as to the history of this doctrine. 

That infants at death are glorified has always been 
the faith of those denominations of Christians, known 
by the appellations, Presbyterians, Dissenters, or 
Calvinists, in every age, from Apostolic days down to 
the present, although the contrary has been often 
asserted by the ignorant and the false. 

Thus, for example, we find Vincentius and Victor, 
in the fourth century opposing the horrid doctrines of 
infant damnation, introduced by Prelatists, who advo- 
cated baptismal regeneration, asserting that in order to 
salvation, all infants must be baptized. So also John 



CHILDHOOD. 



53 



Wickliff, of England, and John Huss of Bohemia, both 
in the fourteenth century : also the Lollards, their fol- 
lowers, who separated themselves from the Papacy, and 
suffered death for the doctrine afterwards called Calvin- 
istic. I say all these of whom the world was not 
worthy, advocated the salvation of infants who died in 
infancy, whether baptized or not. 

So also we find Zuinglius declaring, that all children 
whether those of Christian or Heathen parents, that 
die before actual or known transgression, are saved. 
See his epistles. And, as Maresius says on the words of 
the text, " For of such is the Kingdom of God," "If all 
children are not saved who die in infancy, why are the 
words of the text so general and indefinite ?" And 
Calvin himself, (though branded by the ignorant, as the 
inventor and abettor of infant destruction,) in his Insti- 
tutes of the Christian Religion, book 4th, chapter 16, 
while he firmly maintains that all infants are involved 
in the penalty clue to Adam's first sin, being our cove- 
nant representative, his first act being regarded as the act 
of all his race, yet maintains that they are by Christ 
redeemed from the evil consequent upon Adam's sin, 
and that they are susceptible of regeneration, and con- 
sequently of eternal life, all of which was implied in his 
declaration "suffer little children to come unto me, for 
of such is the Kingdom of God." And from Christ 
blessing little children, it is obvious that he intended to 
show that they are saved through Him. 

In his commentary on the words of our Lord con- 
cerning children, "for of such is the Kingdom of God," 
without any limitation of meaning, or hesitation, he 
declares that God adopts infants, and washes them in 
the blood of his Son — that they are regarded of Christ, 
as among His redeemed. (See Institutes, book fourth, 
chap. 16, section 31.) 



54 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Such have been the views of all Calvinists, from the 
days of Calvin, both on the eastern and western conti- 
nent, the names of whom will always gild the page of 
ecclesiastical history, a few of whose names it may not 
be amiss to record. Calvin, Tyndale, Scot, Newton, 
Gill, Pictet, Whitfield, Watts, Hale, Howe, all of the 
old world ; and Mather and Junkin, eminent old- 
fashioned Calvinists of the new. But here the caviler 
may be ready to ask, does not the Westminster Confes- 
sion of Faith, the standard ot the Presbyterian Church, 
speak only of elect infants being regenerated, and saved 
by Christ through the Spirit ? (chap. 10, sec. 3.) This 
question I answer by asking another. Can any infant 
be saved that is not elected ? If they have fallen in 
Adam, (as undoubtedly "all in him have sinned,") 
then, if saved, it must be on the ground that God has 
elected them to salvation, for even if we admit that 
the doctrine of meritorious good works was true as a 
ground of salvation, (although the Bible condemns it,) 
still they could not be saved on that ground, for the in- 
fant, before a sense of right and wrong is incapable of 
accountable moral action. (Rom. 5: 12.) From this 
reasoning, then, is it not conclusive that infant salvation 
can be supported only on the ground of their election ? 
The doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty does not militate 
against infant salvation, for while it attributes to Jeho- 
vah, all power and right over his creatures to dispose of 
them ; to impart or withhold His favors as seemeth to 
him good ; may He not give His special favor to infants 
dying in infancy, in the exercise of this sovereignty, as 
well as to adults ? And is it not more reasonable that 
his favor would be conferred on them rather than on 
adults, seeing they have never knowingly and willfully 
offended against Him as adults have ? And would not 
the praise of his glorious grace, be as much exhibited in 



CHILDHOOD. 55 

the salvation of infants, as in that of adults, if this be 
the great object of redemption, as undoubtedly it is ? 
(See Eph. 1st chap. 6th A r erse ; also 3d chapter 10th 
verse.) And is not the infant as capable of regeneration 
as the adult is ? Assuredly it is. For in these works of 
grace, while under the influence of the Holy Spirit, they 
are both equally passive. Besides this, we have cases on 
record where this work has been effected by the spirit 
before birth ; as, for instance, the prophet Jeremiah, 
also John the Baptist. (See Jer. 1st chap. 5th verse ; 
also Luke, 1st chap. 15th verse.) Now with these in- 
stances before us, of men sanctified from the womb for 
a special work on earth, is it not reasonable to infer that 
a good and merciful God does sanctify through the Lord 
Jesus Christ, all infants who die before the period of 
accountability ? and thus qualify them for the glorious 
employ of the youthful cherubs above. 

Thus, afflicted parents, God has from eternity ap- 
pointed a bound to your little one's days that she could 
not pass. Keflect, that sovereign, electing grace has, 
from all eternity, encircled in the arms of unmerited 
compassion, through Jesus Christ, the babe and suckling, 
so as, out of their mouth to perfect praise ; — then your 
fears are at once appeased — then your sorrows, bereaved 
parents, are at once turned into joy. 

But, in the second place, we will speak of some of 
the probable reasons that God calls children home. 

And first, it is in mercy to them. Earth at its best 
estate is vanity ; so deceitful and disappointing is even 
the friendship of bosom friends ; so alluring are the 
temptations that earth and sense present, that here we 
may be likened to the tempest-tossed mariner, for whom 
there is no safety, no repose, till he reaches his destined 
haven. The world is constantly promising in the pros- 
pect, great happiness, many comforts ; but all at once 



56 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

they vanish or are blasted by an unseen hand. But the 
infant dead never feels those pangs, never experiences 
those spirit chilling, heart-crushing sorrows. It peace- 
fully glides from the arms of its earthly to those of its 
heavenly Father. Suppose the little one who is now gone, 
had been allowed to reach mature age, become entangled 
with the gayety and follies of this world, her hopes high- 
ly exalted, but through the snares and deceitfulness of 
sin and of sinners, been deceived, disappointed in her 
expectations, placed in circumstances destructive of all 
peace here, and well adapted to ensure her misery here- 
after. How very different from her present condition ! 
Oh ! what a contrast ! ! But she has escaped all this ! 

Rest, on the bosom of thy God; young spirit, rest thee now — 
None of the sorrows here portrayed, shall fall upon thy browl 
The vital cup in part, your lips had quaffed, 
But, with it sickened, you repelled the draught — 
Opposed; then turning from the blaze of day, 
You gently breathed your infant soul away. 
Oh, mourn not for the dead, in youth who pass away, 
Ere peace and joy and bliss have fled, and sin has brought decay. 
Better in youth to die, life being fair and bright, 
Than when the soul has lost its truth, in age and sorrow's night. 
Then shed not the tear of grief upon the sable bier, 
Her wearied spirit finds a rest, in a more blissful sphere. 

But again, children are called away out of mercy and 
love to parents. We have too many idols in this world. 
If God loves us, he must take them out of our way, that 
we may be led to worship God, and not idols. We are 
too much disposed to love the creature more than the 
Creator. Now, to wean us from earth, and set our af- 
fections on things above, to have the world painted in 
its true colors before our eyes, and be brought, like Job, 
to loathe it, exclaiming, "I would not live always," is a 
very important desideratum— a point highly desirable to 



CHILDHOOD. 



57 



gain, so as we may be turned from the ways of sin and 
death, into those of holiness and life. 

Think not of your child as dead, but think of it as 
living ; — not as a flower withered, to bloom no more ; but 
as one transplanted by Jehovah's hand to bloom in rich- 
er colors, and sweeter shades than those of earth. Bear 
in mind God has done this, who does all things best. 

With patient mind thy course of duty run; 
God nothing does nor suffers to be done 
But thou would'st do thyself, if thou could'st see 
The end of all He does, as well as He. 

May the Lord, of his infinite mercy, make this dis- 
pensation the means of a present and eternal blessing to 
your souls, through Jesus Christ His Son. Ame:n". 



PIETY IN CHILDHOOD. 

EEV. ROBERT WYE BETTS. 

ON THE UNTIMELY DEATH OP E. T. D., AGED 13 TEARS, SON OF THE RET. 

S. A. DAYIES, 

KILLED AT THE NEW CROSS RAILWAY STATION, ENGLAND. 



"Because in him was found some good thing toward the Lord God of 

Israel"—! Kings xiv : 13. 

" First the blade"— Mark iv : 28. 

A LTHOUGH the dealings of God with the children 
of men, and the course and dispensations of 
Divine Providence are, to a great extent, enveloped in 
mystery and in gloom, occasional gleams of light break 
through the darkness — gleams of celestial light whereby 
the dark enshrouding shadow-casting clouds are dis- 
persed — gleams of celestial light whereby we are able to 
see that the whole is ordered in infinite wisdom and 
3* 



58 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

love. That God " doeth all things well," and overrules 
whatever occurs to us as individuals, families, or 
nations, for the best, are truths which are frequently, 
forcibly, and fully affirmed in His Holy Word. But 
when events that are of a peculiarly distressing and 
afflictive character take place, our faith is apt to waver. 
We cling to the general idea ; but in relation to the 
particular circumstance that presses so heavily, and 
makes the individual heart bleed, we are at a loss to 
perceive how that can be comprehended in any benefi- 
cent arrangement, and are prone to think that that 
might have been spared. The trial of faith is un- 
doubtedly on this point, when the keenest sensibilities 
of our nature are touched ; when the dearest objects of 
our affection are smitten ; when the most treasured 
blessings of our heart are violently wrested from us. 
Yet, even in such circumstances, faith is not altogether 
without its relief and its rescue ; for sometimes, in ad- 
dition to the strong and general assurance of His word, 
our Heavenly Father lifts a portion of the veil from the 
dark dispensations of His Providence; gives us a 
glimpse of the reason why He permitted the sorrow, the 
woe, the bereavement to come ; enables us to hear His 
voice above the roar of the surging waves and the rush 
of the tempestuous wind, as the Disciples heard the voice 
of Jesus when their hearts were failing them for fear 
upon the storm-tossed lake of Galilee. "It is I. Be 
not afraid." 

Death. The death of children is one of the gloom- 
iest, darkest, and, in the world's opinion, one of the 
most mysterious and unnatural dispensations of Divine 
Providence. Philosophy is startled at the idea of a little 
one cut down just as the buds and blossoms of its life 
are becoming developed. And infidelity, emboldened 
by such an event, ventures on the assertion that there is 



CHILDHOOD. 59 

no Providence but the chapter of accidents, and no 
other God in the world but chance. 

A little deeper attention to the matter, a closer and 
more prayerful investigation of the Book of God, will, 
perhaps, lead to the throwing of more light upon this 
subject than it is generally supposed to have. Let what- 
ever will betide, I have no hesitation in affirming, not 
only on the ground of my Scriptural beliefs, but on the 
ground also of the coincident testimony of experience 
and observation, the stern logic of facts, and the world's 
past history, that the "Judge of all the earth" must 
do right. If " Light is sown for the righteous," it is 
the condition of the sowing that the light be buried 
beneath the soil, its elements, its germs, its seed-form, 
be laid in darkness and in death. " That which thou 
sowest is not quickened, except it die." 

These are general principles — confessedly difficult at 
times of individual application, and not always to be 
perceived or understood in relation to the particular 
event which is at this or that particular moment of our 
history our particular trial. But, then the Bible does 
not shut us up to general principles. It gives us a 
number of instances of their particular application, in 
the Biographies and Histories embalmed in its inspired 
record. The Biographies of the Bible are not mere 
biographies written with no higher aim than that of 
making us acquainted with the men of the past. The 
Histories of the Bible are not mere histories narrated for 
no other purpose than that of describing the onward 
progress of events, until the arrival of the "fulness of 
time," and the advent of the promised Messiah. They 
are biographies and histories rich with illustrations of 
the principles by which God's procedure is governed ; 
fruitful with lessons of heavenly wisdom, in relation to 
the reasons of many of his dealings with the children of 



60 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

men. They are a mine of spiritual wealth, from which 
the earnest and devout workman may procure gems of 
inestimable worth — a firmament of spiritual stars, from 
which illuminating beams stream down on many things 
which we deem dark, mysterious, inexplicable. Inter- 
preted by the histories and biographies of the Bible, the 
woes, the sorrows, the bereavements of life, are not so 
dark, mysterious, inexplicable, as we had supposed them 
to be. 

Very sad, mournful, distressing, is the Providence 
which has furnished me with a special topic of discourse 
this evening. The youngest son of our dear friend, the 
Eev. S. A. Davies, a beautiful child of thirteen years of 
age — beautiful not only for the bright intelligence of his 
countenance, but beautiful for his spirit — beautiful for 
his early piety, some ten days ago fell from the platform 
of the New Cross Railway Station, and was instantly 
crushed to death beneath the wheels of the train for 
which he was waiting, in company with his brother, to 
go to the Crystal Palace. 

We ask, why was one so young, so full of promise, so 
gentle, and so good — such a treasure at home, and such 
a pattern at school, so suddenly snatched away — so 
early called ? Indeed, I cannot tell all the reasons for 
his premature death, any more than I can tell all the 
reasons why so many of the beautiful buds and blossoms 
of the early spring time are permitted to be nipped by the 
frost and perish, any more than I can tell all the reasons 
why such men as Josiah, the pious King of Israel, 
and Prince Albert, the noble husband of our 
beloved Queen, should be cut down in* the very prime 
and flower of life, just when, according to our poor 
judgments, they could least be spared; and at the time 
when their influence for good had reached its power and 
its zenith. But I do not think it is totally inexplicable, 



CHILDHOOD. 61 

or that we must leave it altogether shrouded in distress- 
ing mystery. There is a narrative in Scripture which 
sheds light upon it. We may interpret it by the death 
of the youthful Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, and the 
reason assigned for his premature decease. " Because 
in him was found some good thing toward the Lord God 
of Israel." 

Abijah was taken from the evil to come. Woes and 
judgments hung over the house of Jeroboam. But, be- 
fore their thunderbolts fell, God put forth His hand and 
took this pious youth to a place of safety. " Death came 
to him as a reward, a blessing, and a deliverance." God 
spared him the sorrow of witnessing his father's un- 
happy end. Delivered him from the evils by which his 
father's wicked conduct would have surrounded him, on 
his ascension to the throne, by shortening his earthly 
existence. God loved him, and therefore so early called 
him home. 

Of course the only parallel circumstance between the 
early death of Abijah and the early death of that little 
youth whose untimely end we now deplore is the fact of 
their early piety. But the reason given for Abijah's 
early death — "Because in him was found some good 
thing towards the Lord God of Israel," sheds like a star 
its bright and beautiful and peaceful light upon what 
would else be in the case of Edward Thomas Davies a 
Providence dark as midnight. God loved him, and 
therefore so early called him home. 

Alas ! How often w N e are mistaken in our interpreta- 
tion of God's providential dealings. We are prone to think 
He is acting harshly, when, in fact, He is acting most 
tenderly, kindly, and wisely. We see only parts of His 
ways. But were we in a position to understand the 
whole — were the reason always disclosed to us as it is in 
relation to Abijah's premature decease — there would not 



62 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

be a moment's hesitation about our cordial acquiescence 
in all His movements, or of our acceptance of the most 
afflictive depensations of His Providence as freighted 
with mercy and laden with the highest good. The 
heavenly husbandman gathers for the heavenly garner 
the fruit that is earliest ripe. He takes his best beloved 
away from the evil to come. Upon the tomb-stone of 
this little one God has himself written the epitaph, 
"Because in him was found some good thing toward the 
Lord of Israel." 

It will be seasonable to embrace the opportunity 
given by the premature death of this dear boy — whom I 
believe to have been, in the true, full sense of the phrase, 
" a child of God and an inheriter of the kingdom of 
heaven" — to make a few observations upon Piety in 
Childhood. 

What are the characteristics and features of piety in 
childhood ? what is the form in which we are to look for 
it ? what the symptoms, the features, by which we may 
recognize its existence ? 

6 < First the blade." 

I. Can piety exist in Childhood? Most certainly it 
can. There is nothing in the dispensation of mercy — 
nothing in the general attributes of religion, that limits 
piety to any particular age. 

The Atonement is full and sufficient for the sins of 
the whole world, without limitation of country, age, or 
condition; so that, on the ground of the Atonement, is 
the fact of Atonement, whosoever cometh to God, be he 
young or old, child or adult, "shall in no wise be cast 
out." 

The Holy Spirit, who is the great agent in the effect- 
ual working of the Christian Dispensation, is boundless 
in compassion, infinite in grace, alive with tenderness, 
so that the smoking flax can bear his breath and not be 



CHILDHOOD. 63 

quenched — the bruised reed receive his influence and not 
be broken — the child's heart receive his grace and not 
be crushed with its "far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." 

The Seed of the Kingdom of Heaven is like the seed 
of the mustard-tree — small, the smallest, of all seeds — 
suitable, therefore, for implantation in the soul of the 
youngest child. There is nothing in itself, nothing in 
its own nature, to prevent its being sown with the very 
earliest dawn of reason and receptivity. 

The Gospel is the instrumentality by which souls are 
saved. The Gospel possesses such an inherent power of 
adaptation, that it is "strong meat for men " and "milk 
for babes " — an ocean in which the leviathan can play, 
and a softly- flowing brook at which the timid lamb may 
drink — a river whose waters in some parts rise no higher 
than the ankles, but in others so deep that no plum-line 
can sound its awful depths and fathomless mysteries. 

According to the arrangements of human law and 
social life, there is a minority during which the child or 
youth is incapable of performing certain functions, and 
incapable of taking upon himself certain responsibilities. 
Though he may be the heir, yet, until he has attained 
his majority, he is " under tutors and governors" — can- 
not administer his own affairs, manage his own estate, 
or be legally liable for any debts he may contract. But 
in religion the only minority is that which exists before 
reason and conscience are at all developed. The spirit- 
ual faculties of the child are equal in number to the 
spiritual faculties of the adult; they only lack their manly 
vigor. Instead of being the worse, they are, in some 
respects, the better for this. For their manly vigor is 
oftentimes associated with a guilty experience; and the 
conscience, in early life, so tender and shrinking from 
what is wrong, so wise to what is good, and so simple 



64 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

concerning evil, has often times, in later years, had a 
grievous moral injury done it, by a course of willful and 
persistent sin. 

The yet incomplete development, therefore, of the 
faculties, is no hindrance to personal religion; because 
it is to the affections of the heart that piety makes its 
appeal. And when favored with religious advantages, 
when nurtured in the admonition and fear of the Lord, 
the early childhood years of life are the most hopeful, 
the most favorable years for the implantation of the 
seeds of grace, and for the direction of mind, ere it is 
immersed in the thousand cares of the world, to the 
pursuit and the possession of the "one thing needful." 

Children piously taught and trained in the fear of 
the Lord have, I believe, religious impressions much 
earlier than parents and teachers in general seem to look 
for them, or think they can exist. I have no hesitation 
in saying, that the work of grace has often commenced, 
and made considerable progress, when, to our poor im- 
perfect sight and blindness of spiritual perception, there 
does not appear to be anything more than the outwork- 
ings of the natural temperament. 

There is, indeed, amongst children, that great imped- 
iment to religion — constitutional depravity — the natural 
corruption of the human heart. But this belongs to 
human nature in every stage of its being, and is not, 
cannot be, so strong in early life as it is subsequently, 
when years of sinfulness have added to its force, and 
actual transgression has piled it up a higher mountain 
of separation. 

In childhood, the soil of the heart is not so pre- 
occupied, so extensively pre-occupied, as it is in maturer 
years. The ill weeds of evil, instead of being full-grown, 
exist only in their incipient and germ forms. 

To childhood, the gate of heaven is not so strait as it 



CHILDHOOD. 65 

becomes in after years. A child can easier pass through 
it than a man. 

If you want to have plain and positive proof that 
piety can exist in childhood, you have only to search 
the annals of the Church, in order to discover, from the 
beginning until now, a continuous line of the brightest 
examples of early piety. God, by His Holy Spirit, fre- 
quently begins to work very early in the mind — children 
of very tender years are frequently the subjects of His 
saving grace. Boys and girls are not too young to serve 
the Lord, or love the Saviour. To many young im- 
mortals, like Samuel, Josiah, and Timothy, God has re- 
vealed the things of His kingdom, while He has hidden 
them from the wise and prudent. There are lambs in 
the Saviour's fold ; and though the Church often hesi- 
tates and fears to receive them into its fellowship, the 
Redeemer receives them, folds them in His arms, and 
carries them in His bosom. Nearly three years ago 
there was a little child, the infant daughter of one of 
the members of this church, who died ; she was not 
quite five years old. A little while before her spirit left 
its little suffering mortal frame-work, it seemed as 
though the Holy Spirit imparted to her the fact that 
she was about to die. Calling her father to her side she 
said, "Father, I'm going to be dead ;" and as he, with 
tearful eyes and heart full of grief, looked on, her little 
voice was again heard, " Father, open the door, and let 
Jesus in." Then after giving directions respecting the 
disposal of her books and toys, the vision of glory ap- 
peared to break upon her sight, even as heaven opened 
before the eyes of the martyred Stephen, she said, 
" Father, I can see Jesus." A few moments afterwards 
she closed her eyes and died, her spirit taking its place 
before the throne of God in heaven, around which 
"thousands of children stand — children whose sins are 



66 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

all forgiven — a holy, happy band — singing Glory, glory, 
glory !" Piety can exist in Childhood. And, surely, 
this little one who said, "Father, I'm going to be dead;" 
"Open the door and let Jesus in;" "I can see Jesus," 
was one of the lambs of the Saviour's fold. These are 
His blessed encouraging words, " I love them that love 
Me, and they that seek Me early shall find Me." 

The "blade" is as much His production, as "the 
full corn in the ear." In fact, His compassionate regard 
is as much, perhaps more, shown to the former than to 
the latter ; for while He sends His sun to ripen the ear, 
He protects the tender blade from the nipping, biting, 
killing frost, by covering it with a carpet of snow. 

Piety can exist in Childhood. " Suffer," said the 
Saviour, when His disciples were endeavoring to send 
the little ones away, and, with rude rebuffs, bidding 
the mothers not trouble the Master, "the little children 
to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven." 

And when the disciples were disputing about who 
should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, He took a 
little child and set him in the midst, and, after telling 
them that he would be greatest who nearest approxi- 
mated to the guileless spirit, meekness, and docility of 
that little child, He warned them, " Take heed that ye 
despise not one of these little ones who believe in Me, 
for I say unto you, that in heaven their angels do always 
behold the face of my Father, who is in heaven." It is 
"out of the mouths of babes and sucklings " that God 
"perfects praise." One of his blessed promises, re- 
lating to Gospel times, is, "I will pour My spirit 
upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thy offspring ;" 
a promise which is necessarily vague, which is stript of 
the beauty and grandeur of its meaning, if piety cannot 
exist in childhood. 



CHILDHOOD. 61 

II. What are the characteristics of Piety in Childhood? 

What is the form in which we are to look for it ? What 
the symptoms, the features, by which we may recognize 
its existence ? 

" First, the blade." 

Now, in looking for the features and characteristics 
of piety in childhood, you must, of course, have an eye 
to the moral fitness and order of things. You would 
never think of looking for the "full corn in the ear," 
in the early spring time ; for the fruit of the apple tree, 
while the apple tree is clothed with its beautiful blos- 
soms ; for the sagacity and ability of manhood, in a boy 
at school. So, in your search for the lineaments of 
youthful piety, you must not expect to find theological 
knowledge, mature experience, keen doctrinal precep- 
tions, a full systematic creed, or anything of that sort. 
These things are the aftergrowth. It would be most 
unnatural were they to exist. As unnatural as it would 
be to find the "ear" of corn, formed and developed, 
when the "blade" is just shooting its tiny spire through 
the earth's crust. Eeligion is a life. Piety is a growth ; 
its beginning is small. In its early stages, in theyouth- 
ful mind, it is mainly a thing of feeling, affection. The 
heart is touched by the sweet and tragic story of the 
Cross. The mind is moved by the impulse of devotion ; 
simple, confiding trust in God is awakened, and the re- 
ligion comes out not in the form and phraseology of theo- 
logic schools ; not in the lines and furrows of old age, 
but in the spirit of a little loving life, which loves Jesus 
because He left His throne in glory to die for sinners, 
and to re-open the closed gate of the kingdom of heaven ; 
in the spirit of a little loving life, which shrinks from 
evil, falsehood, deceit, and cruelty, for reasons which it 
cannot fully define, or decipher to itself ; in the spirit 
of a little loving life, which bends the knee in such 



68 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

beautiful simplicity and earnestness of prayer, that 
angels stop to listen to its confiding uttterances. 

What are the natural characteristics of Childhood ? 
I mean the characteristics which distinguish a child in 
relation to his parents. Are they not such as these ? 
Dependence, Faith, Obedience, Docility, Love. Now, 
transfer these characteristics from their earthly to their 
heavenly sphere ; transfer them in heightened form and 
power, from the human to the Heavenly Father, and 
you have at once, in their incipient form, the true fea- 
tures of youthful piety. Piety in childhood manifests 
itself in an unbounded confidence in the Heavenly 
Father's love and power. In the main, in a positive 
remembrance of, and obedience to, the Heavenly Father's 
precepts, but occasionally a wayward and strange forget- 
fain ess of them. In the simple receptivity (unclouded 
by any dark doubts or difficulties) with which it hears 
and receives the Heavenly Father's words. In the frank 
and artless way in which its affections flew out and up- 
ward to the great God who made heaven and earth, and 
to the Saviour who died that we might be washed and 
forgiven. There is perfect naturalness, perfect simpli- 
city, in the form of childhood's piety ; unsuspicious, 
devout, anxious to please, vivid in its recognitions and 
beliefs ; not yet realizing the strange and sorrowful 
vicissitudes of the Christian life, "Full of spiritual 
simplicity, and artless love, and frank confidence, and 
enthusiastic hope, and fervent gratitude, and uncalculat- 
ing self-denial," it unfolds itself just as you might expect 
a life infused by the Holy Spirit to unfold ; not in the 
technicology of doctrinal distinctions ; not in the prim- 
ness of Pharisaic form ; not in agonies of spiritual dis- 
tress, such as the wild olive tree suffers, when it is cut 
for the purpose of having a graft from the tree of life 
inserted into it ; but in the gentle, beautiful manner of 



CSILDEOOD. 69 

the " blade," which rises imperceptibly from the earth's 
dark soil, and then as beautifully, and as gradually, 
progresses toward maturity, producing, in natural order, 
"first, the blade, then the ear, and afterward the full 
corn in the ear." 

It has been my privilege during my ministerial life 
to receive into the fellowship of the Church a large 
number of young Christians. I am sure I am correct in 
saying that by far the larger number of those who have 
been thus admitted into communion in early life have 
been the children of pious parents of many prayers — 
who have received a godly and pious training. Their 
almost invariable testimony has been that their religion 
has been a growth — not resulting from any sudden im- 
pulse, but coming out as a life which the Holy Spirit 
has imparted, shooting up like the "blade" of wheat, 
almost invisibly in its beginnings, but showing itself to 
be a genuine plant of grace by its structure and by its 
growth ; while in relation to very many of whom I 
speak I have no sort of doubt but that for many years 
before they came to me, though perhaps parents and 
friends knew it not, they were safely enfolded within the 
precincts of the Saviour's kingdom. "Of such is the 
kingdom of Heaven." " First the blade." 

Of Piety in Childhood, in its " blade " form, the 
dear boy (who has so suddenly, and under such painfully 
distressing circumstances, been taken from us) was a 
striking illustration. 

Beyond the "blade" form the piety of little E. T. D. 
was not suffered to have any development in this 
world. Its development — full maturity — however, has 
been reached earlier than it could possibly have been in 
this world. By a process which nature knows nothing 
of, but which is common in the realms of grace, that 
little child, bearing on earth the incipient " image of 



?o Memorial tributes. 

the heavenly," has now taken on its perfect likeness. 
"The blade," brought to perfection in the instant of its 
death transition, is now safely deposited in the heavenly 
garner. 

Parents and Teachers, — Watch for the springing of 
the "blade" of piety in the hearts of the children com- 
mitted to your charge. Do not overlook it. Take care 
lest you trample upon it. At its first appearance it will 
be very tender and very small. And when you discover 
it, foster it, nurture it with kindly influences. Water it 
with the tears of prayer and thankful joy. Pray for the 
Sun of Righteousness to shine upon it with his fruit 
producing beams. Don't talk to your children about 
religion as a thing to be possessed in the future, and say- 
that you hope that some day they will love the Lord 
Jesus Christ. It may be that the good seed of the 
kingdom has already taken root — that the love of the 
Lord Jesus Christ is already begotten. By such remarks 
about a future piety you may stop the growth of the 
piety that already exists. God sometimes begins His 
work very early. Then recognize piety in its first 
development, and the love of God in its most incipient 
forms. 

Children and Young People! Is the "blade" of 
piety springing up in your hearts ? Think what a bar- 
ren and desolate heart yours must be if it has not the 
"blade" of piety growing in it, and what a wretched, 
awful thing it would be for you to have your life pre- 
maturely cut short as that dear little fellow's was of 
whom I have been speaking. Instead of being gathered 
into the heavenly garner, you would have been cast out. 
Instead of there being "hope in your death," your 
friends and relatives would have been deprived of the 
strong and sweet consolation which the friends of 
Edward Thomas Davies have, notwithstanding his un- 



CHILDHOOD. 71 

timely end. It is a sad thing to be without piety toward 
God, for piety toward God is the first and foremost duty 
of life. All the ways of the world, though they seem so 
sunny and pleasant, are "vanity and vexation of spirit." 
They lead down to the chambers of death. Only the 
paths of religion are pleasantness and peace. If there is 
not "first the blade," there can never be "the full corn 
in the ear." There will never be a season again so favor- 
able as the present for you to receive into your hearts 
the good seed of the kingdom, for as you grow older 
"the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and 
the lust of other things, will choke the word, and 
render it unfruitful." " Eemember now your Creator 
in the days of your youth." Give your hearts to him at 
once. From this time cry unto him, "My Father, thou 
shalt be the guide of my youth." And then, whatever 
evil days may come — whether an early tomb or pro- 
tracted years be your lot — all will be well. For if, on 
the one hand, you come to an early grave, you will the 
sooner reach the mansions of everlasting joy ; or if, on 
the other, you are permitted to attain a good old age in 
this world, your life will be a walk with God under the 
guidance and fear of His love ; and when Death, the 
Great Eeaper, shall at length come, it will be to gather 
you, as a shock of corn fully ripe, into the Heavenly 
Garner. Come, and, kneeling before your Heavenly 
Father's footstool, " join yourself to Him in a perpetual 
covenant that shall never be forgotten." 



The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall 
feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of 
waters : and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes. 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



YOUTH, 



SUNSET AT NOON. 

REV. W. RODWELL. 

Her sun is gone down while it was yet day. — Jek. 15: 9. 

TXTHATEVER may be the literal meaning of these 

* words they suggest a departure in mid-life. 
Wherever we go, over land or sea, death's ravages are 
seen, and at whatever season of the year or hour of the 
day we visit the abodes of men death has preceded us. 
It has its types in fading flower, in withering grass, in 
falling leaf and setting sun. 

The sun going down at noon is very suggestive of 
the unexpectedness of death in the meridian of life, and 
yet 

I. The sun goes down by the appointment of God. 
" He maketh night and day," and ruleth the heavens. 
Joshua and Hezekiah alone have interfered with the 
sun's course during a period of nearly 6,000 years. 
To God belong the issues of even death. He never visits 
without the Divine appointment. 

II. The sun goes down for the benefit of the human 

[72] 



YOtTTH. n 

race, that man may retire and rest and recruit his wasted 
powers, that other portions of the human family may 
obtain light and heat, and that man's fund of knowledge 
may be increased. For darkness shows us worlds by night 
we never saw by day. 

So death works for the world's good, restrains wick- 
edness, solemnises thoughtless ones, through tears and 
bereavements shadows earth, attracts to heaven and re- 
veals wondrous things to the dead. 

III. The sun often goes down too soon for us. Work 
unfinished, Joshua, Hezekiah, David, " Spare me," Vol- 
taire, Elizabeth. In spite of life's trials and sorrow, we 
cling to it ; even Moses desired to live longer that he 
might enjoy more of the beauties, but his sun went 
down on this side of Jordan. 

IV. The sun has his natural time for setting. This 
setting is expected and prepared for by man : to set be- 
fore would be startling, perplexing, phenomenal. So 
with human life. Every one expects the accustomed 
length of days — three score or four score — to be cut off 
before or in mid-life seems unnatural, abnormal and 
mysterious. 

V. The sun goes down to rise again. In a brief in- 
terval he appears again, climbing the heavens in majesty 
and strength. So with the departed dead. Those in 
Christ will appear again in golden splendor. Those out 
of Christ amid the lurid flames of the lost. A time will 
come when this orb of day will go down, never more to 
rise, but the godly shall live on, " unhurt," where the 
"sun shall no more go down." 

VI. Let us be cheered by this light of revelation. God 
is the Father of Lights, does all things well, and whether 
the sun of our loved ones depart in the morning, at 
mid-day, or in the evening, it will have a glorious rising 
in that perfect day, in which there shall be no night. 

4 



74 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



THE SLEEPING DAMSEL. 

KEV. F. WAGSTAFF. 
The damsel is not dead but sleepeth. — Mark v: 39. 
"JPVEATH never inquires about age or goodness before 
""■^ he touches with his icy finger. This girl was twelve 
years of age. She was probably a good, dutiful girl, who 
obeyed her parents, rejoiced in their company, and 
basked in their smile ; she was doubtless also of an affec- 
tionate, obliging disposition, for while we know that her 
father loved and sought on her behalf the Saviour's saving 
power, other hearts were attracted towards her and many 
people came to weep over her at her death. Learn 

I. That youth and amiability do not shield from sick- 
ness and death. However few the years, amiable the dis- 
position, attractive the person, engaging the manners, 
the worm of sin is gnawing the vitals and death is ap- 
proaching with his dart. 

II. How valuable are godly parents to their chil- 
dren. Parental affection should prompt at all times to 
deep interest in the salvation of children, but when dan- 
ger threatens, sickness pales, and weakness shows the 
precursory dissolution, there should be no hesitancy or 
delay in seeking the aid and presence of Jesus. This 
child's father sought Jesus. He was his only hope. How 
great his faith, even when she was dead. "• Only lay thy 
hand upon her and she shall live." Matt, ix : 18. 

III. The comforting word with which Jesus clothes 
the idea of death. " Sleep." He ever sought to impress 
the people that death is not the end, but only the sus- 
pension of activity. Sleep is rest for future activity. 
Death is rest, and that only of the body, as in sleep, that 
in the resurrection, soul and body may enter upon re- 



YOUTH. 75 

newed activities. It is in this higher blessed sense that 
Jesus has used the word. "Asleep in Jesus! Blessed 
sleep, etc." 

IV. Observe Jesus the resurrection. His heart is 
moved bj the father's and mother's grief — tender and 
loving Himself — the elder brother saw with pity in his 
eye the little sister in the embrace of death — and hav- 
ing omnipotence at his command He used these sweet 
winning, powerful words, "Damsel," or, as Dean Sanley 
translates the original, "My lamb, my sweet little lamb, 
I say unto thee, arise." How precious the friendship of 
Jesus, how ready to aid in distress, how tender in his 
sympathies, how omnipotent in his power. 

V. Note how death quails before the touch and words 
of Jesus. "He took her by the hand," and said. 

How valuable that hand -help, and those words of life 
and power. How often that maiden must have thought 
of the time when she came to life again and found her 
hand held by one so kind and strong. Would she not 
afterward — knowing that she was raised to life — say, 
" For me to live is Christ." 

VI. Learn the fatality of sin. The importance of 
faith, the value of pious relatives — the readiness, tender- 
ness and power of Jesus — the sweet name he gives to 
death. Give Him your hand now, and he will take you 
by the hand at the resurrection and present you to all 
blessed and loving ones. 



There comes the thought of glory, 

To which our friends are gone ; 
The far surpassing glory, 

Beyond what earth has known. 
Estate of light and gladness, 

Where tears are wiped away; 
The joy in blessed fullness 

Of everlasting day. 



?6 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



ONE NOTE IN A BUKIAL HYMN. 

KEY. CHARLES JERDAN. 
We spend our years as a tale that is told. — Ps. 90: 9. 
HPHIS is one of the oldest, noblest, richest of the 
Psalms. Its grand theme is to contrast God and 
man. Its tone is pensive, sad, like a funeral dirge. It is 
in fact the burial hymn of the whole generation of un- 
believers, who left their bones in the wilderness. Yet 
it lays hold of the power and mercy of the G-od of Je- 
shurun and represents Jehovah as the everlasting home 
of men. It has a variety of similes expressive of the 
frailty and brevity of human life, one of which is our 
text. Consider then 

I. Our Lives as a Tale : 

1. Because of their romantic interest. This interest 
attaches to our life, because of the greatness of our 
nature. A human life is a divine thing, because man 
was made in the image of God. The meanest person 
has wonderful faculties and " the power of an endless 
life." The history of the humblest human life is a 
story of wonders. What a tragedy is the career of every 
unconverted man, as his noble humanity sinks down, 
down, ever down into the blackness of darkness. It is 
" Vanity Fair " in real life. What a story of light and 
love and glory unutterable is the biography of the 
believer, the tale of the " Pilgrim's Progress," " The 
path of the just, &c." 

2. Because of its brevity. Every story, however 
thrilling, soon comes to an end. So with human biogra- 
phy. Moses in this Psalm, Jacob. The hours some- 
times in a life may seem to pass slowly, but when all 
gone, they only seem as the told tale ; delusive, disap- 



YOTJTH. 77 

pointing, despicable. But Faith looks upon every man's 
life story with far other eyes. It sees the thread of the 
narrative which seems cut by the shears of death taken 
up on the other side and projected through eternity. 
It is a serial tale — "To be continued in our next/' run- 
ning on in the eternal world upon the same lines and 
evolving the same plot and plan as those which we have 
already composed during the present life. 

3. Because of the oblivion in store for them. How- 
ever captivating the story, it is soon forgotten. So we 
shall not only die, but die out, fade from the memory of 
others. What does the big busy world care about the 
life story of those who lie under the coverlet of green ? 
" The living know that they must die, &c." We write 
our names on water, but the Christian man rejoices that 
his record is on high, and his name engraven on the 
breast-plate of the Eedeemer. 

II. The tellers of the tale. Every romance has an 
author. God our maker may be truly said to be the 
author and publisher of the story of our life. We draw 
our being out of His. God has a definite life plan for 
every human being, and we ought to co-operate with 
Him in the unfolding of it from day to day. But we 
must not forget that each one of us is in a special sense 
the teller of his own life story. Every one of us knows 
that he is freely and responsibly engaged in determining 
his own destiny. If Ave are not co-operating with God, we 
have a prospectus of our own. God's would lead "to 
glory, honor, immortality," ours is "earthly, sensual, 
devilish." What are the contents of the pages we have 
been writing ? Is this their epitome ? " To me to live is 
Christ." 

III. The listeners to the tale. A tale "told" is for 
the benefit of some attentive auditory. Who are 
listening to the story of our lives ? 



78 MEMOBIAL TRIBUTES. 

1. We ourselves are listening to it. Our memory is 
listening and "pigeon-holing," treasuring. This book 
may be opened at the judgment. 

2. Our relatives and neighbors are listening to it. 
They are reading and carefully pondering. "None of 
us liveth to himself." Wondrously influential is every 
chapter and verse of this tale as it is told. " Do not sin 
against the child." You are your "brother's keeper." 

3. God is listening to it. He has an open eye and 
an attentive ear. "He shall bring every work into 
judgment," shall read out our life tale before the uni- 
verse. It may run thus, "I was an hungered, &c, came 
unto me," or it may run thus, "I was an hungered, &c, 
visited me not." "Oh that we were wise, &c." 

Let us so live that our tale, when it is " told," shall 
be written in heaven and not in hell. 



LIFE FOR THE DEAD. 

JAMES HAMILTON, D.D. 
Young man, 1 say unto thee, arise. — Luke 7: 14. 
TT was a summer day in a lovely region. The Saviour 
and his disciples were entering a little hamlet, when 
cries fell on their ears, and a funeral possession met their 
gaze. On the bier lay a young man, the only son of a 
widow. It was a distressing scene, touched the heart of 
Jesus, who touched the bier, and said, "young man, etc." 
I. Death is the great destroyer of earthly happiness. 
It throws a pall over every landscape, darkens every 
window, dims every eye. It had done all this and 
more for this widow. Her husband was gone, all her 
plans frustrated, etc., and now her only son is on the bier. 
There was no one to protect, support, comfort her. 



70UTH. 79 

Death is the great damper to all. The desire of the 
eyes taken away, and a pensiveness brooding over every- 
thing left, a fearful foreboding in the heart continually 
solicitous about some darling object and all a lifetime 
"subject to bondage." 

II. Jesus is the destroyer of death. The bier-bearers 
stand still at his touch, the disembodied spirit heard the 
yoice, and the re-animated widow's son arose. He who is 
the " resurrection and. the life " had spoken ; at his 
omnipotent behest, the spirit came again, and a trans- 
ported mother and an awe-struck multitude announced 
the miracle complete. 

No spirit that has passed away is extinct. It will 
in due time hear this same voice, and recognize its old 
companion and re-enter its mortal shrine. 

Jesus is effecting the resurrection of dead souls every 
day. Souls blind to all beauty — deaf to all holy sounds, 
wrapped in the grave-clothes of sins. He arrests these 
sometimes by a startling providence on their way to the 
gulf of souls. Or by wore? He does it : "arise." The 
soul is quickened, etc. He who believes in Jesus will 
never die. Faith in Him lightens the gloom of the 
funeral day, and inspires with a hope of meeting in the 
same Fathers house. 

III. Jesus by a graceful generosity consummated the 
deed of mercy. He might have said, "Follow me." " He 
delivered, etc." Pity first prompted and now generosity 
consummates. The young man's gratitude was to be 
exhibited by dutiful obedience to his mother. Show 
piety at home. Be a paragon of filial piety. "How can 
I show my love to my Saviour ?" Love your parents. 
Give them your confidence, society, your sympathy, and 
G-od your heart. 



80 ME MO EI AL TRIBUTES. 



THE AMUSIVE WASTE OF LIFE. 

WIT. AT. PAXTOX, D.D. 
TT<e spend rwr years as a tale tJiat is told. — Ps. 90: 9. 
'T^HE times and incidents of each year as it closes, fast 
recede from view, as if borne upon an ebbing tide 
never to return. And these years are ours. It is a sad 
and solemn thing to part with anything that is ours. In 
what sense are they " ours ?" We have no proprietorship 
in them, nor authority over them. Yet they are linked 
to us by a personal responsibility and indissoluble rela- 
tion. 

1. They are ours to enjoy. Enjoyment is the appro- 
priation by which a thing becomes truly our own. With- 
out this there can be no real possession, and God made the 
years to be the measure of our joy. Each day and year 
is a new gift of heaven to enjoy. Better lose a jewel 
than a joy. 

2. They are ours to employ. Ours for the best and 
most valuable uses. They are our seed time to be em- 
ployed. They are a mine in which there is a mass of 
precious treasure. They are our working day, in which 
God says. "Go work, my son, etc/'' 

3. They are ours to account for. Time is a precious 
treasure given us in trust, as stewards, and a year gone, is 
a year gone to the judgment seat. So is every day, hour, 
moment. How do we spend these years? The text tells 
us. The words imply a censure. 

II. The comparison. Dwell for a few moments on it. 

1. " As a tale,' 3 as a false, unreal, fictitious thing, 
and not a sober history. The allusion is to the tales, 
etc., told by traveling minstrels from house to house. 



YOUTH. 81 

Such to vast multitudes is life, a vain, unreal, fictitious 
delusion, a succession of wanton hopes and bitter disap- 
pointments. Even Solomon found it thus. He mistook 
the proper use and design of the good things of life. 
Life is deceitful only as we use it deceitfully. Properly 
understood and virtuously fulfilled it is a scene of sub- 
lime reality, a school for exercise and evolution of im- 
mortal powers. "Life is earnest, etc." 

2. We spend our years anmsively, as if listening to a 
tale that is told. A tale is usually a momentary trifling 
amusement. It is followed with no good or permanent 
results. The story and the emotions excited soon pass 
and are forgotten. Thus pass many of the years of a 
large portion of the human race. They waste and con- 
sume their years as one who listens to a tale that is told. 
They are mere butterflies. Absorbed by mere trifles. 
To such the successive stages of life bring no solemn re- 
flections. 

How different is this manner of employing the life 
from that to which it was destined by our Creator ! By 
Him it was intended to be to each one of us a day of 
probation and of grace, a season in which we were to 
renounce our sins, accept of the mercy offered us through 
a Redeemer and secure a title to a happy immortality. 

Have we spent our years thus ? 

3. We spend our years swiftly, as a tale that is told. 
This confronts us with a serious solemn fact. Hours 

fly like words, weeks like sentences, months like chapters, 
and life a tale quickly told. "We die daily," says the 
Apostle, die as fast as time flies. 

" Our birth is nothing but our death begun, 
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb." 

4. How short our past life appears in review. " An 

old man can live over all his life again at one sad sitting." 
' 4* 



82 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Jacob said, "Few and evil have been, etc." He could 
only remember as it were the leading events, the other 
parts were as - one great undotted blank. 

III. Another comparison. Years past, like a tale that 
is told, are useful only for their moral. The past yields 
food only for solemn reflection. 

1. Each year has heen a year of prolonged life. 

2. Each year a year of great spiritual opportunity 
and privilege. 

3. Each year a year of domestic and social enjoyment. 

The moral differs according to the position and cir- 
cumstances of each individual. "As for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord," for one; "Son, give me 
thy heart," for another. 



DIVINE CONSOLATION. 

J. OSWALD DYKES, D.D. 

When the Lord saw her, He had compassion and He said unto her, 
weep not. — Luke vii: 13. 

r T^HESE words were uttered by the Saviour when he 
met a funeral procession at the gate of the village 
of Nain. A poor widow had lost her only son. It was 
a picture of the deepest human grief. His eye read her 
story, fathomed her anguished heart, had compassion on 
her, and with a voice which must have trembled with a 
strange tenderness, said unto her, "weep not." 

These two words Avere all he said. They were pre- 
sently interpreted to the widow of Nam, by the miracle 
which gave her back her son. They have been since in- 
terpreted for us by the resurrection of the Lord himself 
and by all the light which has been cast on death, and 
on the state beyond it, and on the day of general rising, 



YOUTH. 83 

and on eternal life ; this leads us into the whole of that 
large consolation, which Christ's Gospel brings to every 
Christian who sits and mourns beside his dead. We 
must not misunderstand this dissuasive from weeping, 
nor misread these words of Jesus, nor repeat them in 
another sense than his. 

I. It is not Christ's way to comfort by making light of 
grief and death. Death is not in his eyes a gentle or a 
slight thing. He made us for life. He gave us love 
that we might be happy in living. He meant us to live 
and love and rejoice in love and life, and when death 
comes to us through sin, to rend the companionships of 
love, Christ, who made us and who is one of us, knows 
what that means. It is in no cold tone of pitiful con- 
tempt, with no touch of impatience or upbraiding, that 
He says to any one, " weep not." 

II. Christ does not think it an ungodly thing to weep. 
It is not wrong to sorrow. Tears are no sin. " Jesus wept." 
That is not piety which thinks it pays God a service of 
dutiful submission when it chokes its sobs and veils the 
bursting heart beneath a smooth, dry face. Jesus as- 
suages the spring of grief within, but does not chide the 
overflow of tears. 

III. Jesus did not mean to fully assuage our grief here 
and now. He gives us as much comfort on earth as will 
make tolerable the losses of earth and keeps more com- 
fort for the life to come. When Jesus bade that widow 
dry her tears it was in anticipation of the deed he was 
about to do. Words are very impotent without deeds. 
Till the lost is given back, the heart cannot quite cease 
to mourn. It is written of another place than earth, that 
there "God shall wipe away all tears," and there only; 
and the reason is, that only there God will restore to us 
our lost and mourned . The chastened and purified sor- 
row of a bereaved Christian is sorrow still, but it has 



84 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

more of heaven in it, than many things which men call 

joys- 

What then is the comfort which even now the Gospel 
of our Saviour mingles with the mourning of his people? 

IV. The Gospel has entirely changed the character of 
death to the departed. The death of an unf orgiven one 
is the knell of hope. If it is thus my friend has died, 
how shall I be comforted ? But the Christian's is a sting- 
less death. Death to such a one is an angel of peace. 
He comes to loose the prison-bands of clay and set them 
free to go home to their Father's house. Theirs is the 
gain, ours is the loss, yet not all, for we must not forget 
that Christ's gospel has a power of transmuting present 
bereavement into gain. Bereavement is often turned for 
those who live into a blessing. God did two kindnesses 
at one stroke when He bereft you of your beloved : one 
kindness to him ; another kindness to you. To him, the 
perfecting of character and bestowal of bliss ; to you, 
ripening of character and preparation for bliss. 

By such sweet solaces of sorrow as these, Christ 
leads us forward to the hope of a yet future and still 
grander consolation, when we shall be reunited in a holy 
place and forever. It was a prediction of this which 
Jesus gave that day at Nain by the resurrection of the 
dead son and his reunion to his mother. The resurrec- 
tion of Christ Himself is that which guarantees the ulti- 
mate unpeopling of every tomb, including that "vast and 
wandering grave," the sea. His risen body presents the 
type of every reconstructed Christian body. . His glori- 
fied life is the source and pledge of their life in glory. 
For this recall from death by the archangel's voice to 
Christ's own deathless and transfigured immortality, as 
for the deepest, grandest and last of our consolations, 
Christ bids us hope. Now we are sad and weary for we 
dwell apart ; but Jesus has compassion on us as he had 



YOUTH. 85 

upon the widow, and lie tenderly encourages us to be 
patient, and to wait, because with such hopes as these 
He leads us, greatly longing, forward to a day, when He 
shall give back our lost beloved to our eternal embrace, 
and us also to theirs, the glorified to the glorified, to be 
for ever one. Then He shall wipe all tears from our 
eyes, and say, otherwise and more effectually than He did 
at Nain, " Weep not." 



THE MOURNER'S BEST NEWS. 

KEV. WM. MORLEY PUKSHOK". 
Jesus mid unto 7ier, 1 am the resurrection and the life. — John xi: 25. 
^HESE are grand words, though they have often 
fallen upon hearts bruised and pained, and when the 
thoughts are more occupied with the cypress than the 
laurel. But the mystery of life which God has arranged 
to come out of the mystery of death, is at once the 
holiest revelation of his glory and the fullest evangel of 
his love. The text is found in a narrative inimitable 
for its tenderness. Eull of lessons of heavenly wisdom, 
k.ndness, compassion, divine simplicity. There is very 
much in it for interesting and beautiful contemplation, 
but our text is its central announcement, and our Saviour 
designed to have it impressed as a Gospel, not for that 
family only, but for the mourners of all time. 

I. Think of the authority with which these words are 
spoken. "I am ;" not, "I will be." Surely no creature 
could speak thus. He speaks as a king would speak, 
whose 'royalty was doubted. The words assume a su- 
preme and essential power over life and death. His 
was the original gift of life — his the right to dissolve its 
organization, and the right to confer it again, and 



86 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

therefore, He, and He only could be the opener of the 
world of graves. Man's power is wondrous. But to 
confer life is explicitly affirmed in the scriptures as the 
exclusive prerogative of Godhead. The mystery and 
the marvel cease when God is introduced — "that God 
should raise the dead." The words of our text are the 
Eedeemer's assumption of divinity. In that benignant 
weeper over His friend's sepulcher we behold the omnip- 
otent and eternal God. These words also affirm that 
through Him — the Christ — resurrection came to man. 
Christ to man is the resurrection — its source, spring, 
author, finisher in a sense in which no other can be. 
The stone has been rolled away from the door of His 
sepulcher, " Christ is risen, and has become the first 
fruits of them that slept." Christ then has a right to 
speak with authority. 

Nor must we exclude from our thoughts the idea 
of a spiritual resurrection — the soul bursting from the 
tomb of its corruption and blooming into newness of 
life. Though till men inherit immortality, the future 
of the wicked is never dignified by the name of life. 
" Everlasting contempt," — " Everlasting destruction." 
" They shall not see life, because the wrath of God 
abideth upon them." This is a corpse world — dead in 
trespasses and sins. The sinner breathes in visible life, 
thinks in intellectual life, feels in emotional life, but 
he is destitute of spiritual life. But the Christian's life 
is in Christ. From the tomb of his corruption he rises 
by Christ into a moral resurrection, and becomes, by faith 
in Christ, " dead unto sin, but alive unto God." He is 
quickened, He was formerly dead. He has passed from 
death unto life. This is the deeper meaning which the 
term in the text embodies. Oh, the glorious fullness of 
a completed resurrection, which at once ransoms the body 
from the grave and the soul from the foul sepulcher of 



YOUTH. 8? 

sin ! Do you wonder that like Paul at Athens we should 
preach to you " Jesus and the resurrection ?" 

Dwell on this comforting thought, tempted, sorrowing 
believer, for it speaks of encouragement and assurance. 
Art thou mourning for friend, companion, child ? Oh, let 
Jesus stand by thee, and as thou listenest to his inspiring 
words, be comforted, and thy frame shall feel the pulses 
of a glad hope as when nature stirs in the first blush of 
spring. If they and thou are alike in Jesus, then hast 
thou not looked the last upon thy friends. There shall 
not be a vesture of death about either thee or them. Ye 
shall rise in the faultlessness of thy new character — the 
Lamb's unspotted bride. Let us realize the double con- 
solation — comfort for the mourners who are crushed 
beneath some pressing sorrow, comfort for mourners 
who wrestle with some giant sin, and in our distress, 
and in our feebleness, let us hear the voice again, as once, 
by the charnel cave of Lazarus, it ran electric, like a line 
of light, to make the blood flow freely in the veins of 
the living and then leaped into the sepulcher to relax 
even the very grip of death itself. "I am the resur- 
rection and the life." 

II. Dwell for a little upon the word "life" — that 
word that is always music — that word, next to the word 
" God in Christ " has in it the deepest meaning in the 
world. We have anticipated this somewhat. But let 
us cross the flood where that life specially is, whose path 
the Saviour is to show, the mansions which He has goue 
to prepare. Jesus is called, "The true God and eternal 
life." "What is this eternal life, which is held before the 
believer's eye, and chartered as his privilege ? 

This life is conscious ; death cannot for one moment 
paralyze the soul. Paul said it was il far better to de- 
part." He knew the moment he was released from mor- 
tality he should be with Christ. There is not a moment's 



88 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

interval of slumber for the soul — we do not cease to be. 
We only change the conditions of our being. There is 
no human soul, which from the day of Adam until now 
has ever dwelt in clay, that is not alive to-day ! It is 
a conscious world into which we are passing. 

Again, Heaven is not a solitude. It is a peopled city 
— where there are no strangers, no homeless, no poor, 
where one does not pass another in the street without 
greeting, where no one is envious of another's superior 
minstrelsy or of another's more brilliant crown. They 
are not only with the Saviour, but with the "General 
Assembly," and with ' ' the spirits of the just made per- 
fect ;" all affections are pure, all enjoy conscious recog- 
nition, all abide in perpetual reunion, in a home with- 
out a discord, without an illness, without a grave. 

Take comfort, then; those from whom you have parted 
or from whom you shall have soon to separate, shall be 
your companions again, recognized as of old, and loved 
with a purer love. 

The resurrection and the life — what heart is not 
thrilled with the preciousness of the promise — who does 
not feel more grateful to the Bedeemer, who brings him 
life ? Enjoyed recompense, recovered friends — there 
for ever and Jesus with us there ! 



Deak as thou wert, and justly dear, 

We will not weep for thee; 
One thought will check the starting teai 

It is — tbat thou art free. 
And thus shall Faith's consoling power 

The tears of love restrain : 
Oh! who tbat saw thy parting hour, 

Could wish thee here again? 



YOUTH. 



THE BELIEVER, IX LIFE, DEATH, AXD 

ETEBXITY. 

BEY. JOSEPH HASLEGEAYE, EXGLAXD. 

Ox OCCASION OF TBS, DKATH OF TWO YOUXG LaDIF.S. TeaCHEF.S IX THE 

Sdmday School. 

' He shall enter into peace; they shall hone 

walking in 7iis uprightness.'' — Is at ah lvii : 2. 

A TAX die tli and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up 

the ghost, and where is he ? 

Beneath the green sod, on which we lightly tread 
and drop the tear, lies mingling with its kindred dust, 
the form witn which Ave were once familiar, and whose 
presence may have called forth many a deep and happy 
emotion: but where is the invisible spirit that once 

i _.'ized, animated, lived in it ? The soul, where is 
it ? That it has not ceased existence, its own throb- 
bings after immortality, its own hopes or fears of future 
being, its own inherent consciousness that dissolution 
has no power over it, may well be taken as proof, while 
the revelation of God has left the matter beyond all 
doubt, and has assured us, that when the body returns 
to the dust as it was, the soul returns to God who gave 
it, to be disposed of as most fitting, either to enjoy Him, 
or to be banished from Him for ever. 

What a thought, as we walk the cemeteries and think 
of the dead and buried of past generations, and, musing 
among the tombs, the inscription meets our eye, record- 
ing the mortal remains sleeping beneath : yet in that 
very word •'*' mortal ,; beckoning to man's immortal part 
with the question, "Where is it P 3 The mother that 
gave me birth, the father that protected and provided 



90 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

for my helpless youth, the brother, the sister, the hus- 
baud, the wife, the friend, the companion — "where?" 
" Your fathers, where are they ?" The grave answers, 
" Their mortal remains are with me, but I have no more 
in my keeping." The Bible answers, "Their immortal 
spirits are living unto God." 

And as the tear of hopeful sorrow drops upon the 
precious dust, the prayer heaves within, " Let me die 
the death of the righteous, and let my last end be 
like his." Not a few such, thank God, we have known, 
who have thus fallen " asleep in Jesus." And eminently 
has it been thus with the two much loved and departed 
ones, whose faith and conversation we would summon to 
your remembrance on this mournful occasion ; mourn- 
ful only to the Church below, because of its bereave- 
ment, but joyful to the Church above, because of its 
addition to its numbers ; for truly and emphatically may 
it be said of both, as the narrative of their last hours 
will prove — they have " entered into peace," or sweetly 
glided away in peace; they are now "resting in their 
beds, each one walking in her uprightness." 

Whatever be the lasting impressions made on 
survivors, the departed righteous have "entered into 
peace." In respect to their bodies, they are resting in 
their peaceful dormitories ; in respect to their souls, 
each is walking before G-od in its uprightness. 

Commentators have understood this latter, as de- 
scriptive of their life or walk with God while on earth ; 
determining alike the circumstances of their leaving it, 
and the consequences. Theirs was a life before God of 
uprightness ; at its close, therefore, as a happy conse- 
quence, it is a departing in peace ; the soul at once en- 
tering into the fullness thereof, in the land of everlast- 
ing uprightness ; and the body slumbering in its bed, 



YOUTH. 91 

after its day of toil, till the bright morning of the 
resurrection. 

But this will not shut out the interpretation we are 
more inclined to give, but will rather so harmonize with 
it as to add to it additional power. Taking them to- 
gether, the words of the text will lead us to contemplate 
the child of God — 

I. In the strength and vigor of life. Nominal re- 
ligion and vital religion are as different in their ways as 
they will be in their end. Self is the idol of one ; God 
is the object of the other. Morality is all, therefore, 
which the one commends ; sanctification is the express 
will of the other. A secret distaste to spiritual things 
marks the one ; a growing relish and love to them dis- 
tinguishes the other. And this is in keeping with their 
true character. Self-satisfaction, a false peace, a ground- 
less hope, is all which the better sort of the worldly ever 
can attain to; a satisfaction in God, a "peace which 
passeth all understanding," a hope which shall never 
"make ashamed," is the portion of the other. For the 
kingdom of God, into which they have found admission, 
is "righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." 
It is righteousness, whether imputed or inwrought; and 
both there must be, to qualify for the high privilege of 
a walk with God. The person must be justified ; and 
this only can be through the righteousness of Christ by 
faith ; and the character must be sanctified by faith, of 
the operation of God. And thus it is, that every par- 
doned sinner becomes a changed and holy character. 
"Accepted in the Beloved," he walks before God in up- 
rightness. And this has ever been the way the fathers 
trod from the beginning. Thus Enoch walked with 
God — Noah walked with God — Abraham walked before 
God. They had their heaven on earth, till earth re- 



92 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

ceived its own, and their happy spirits mounted up to 
"walk with Christ in white, for they were worthy." 

Such a walk as this, is not undertaken at the bidding 
of conscience, to satisfy its scruples or to allay its fears. 
It springs from a renewed heart ; from the deep and pure 
gushings of love within ; from reconciliation and peace 
with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. And from 
the moment that God's love visits the soul, calling forth 
love to Him in return, this holy, heavenly, happy walk 
commences. A thing of free choice, for the affections 
are drawn to it ; of liberty of service, for the heart is en- 
larged ; of pure delight, for it is heaven begun, and will 
be heaven consummated. To defer it, would be to defer 
the soul's happiness ; and therefore, in the bloom of 
youth, in the vigor of health, in the prospects of life, 
let others ask, "Who will show us any good ?" — the 
heaven-born child replies, in the deep and fervent breath- 
ings of his soul, "As for me, Lord, lift Thou up the 
light of Thy countenance upon me : I will behold Thy 
face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake 
with Thy likeness." 

It certainly was thus with both our departed friends, 
removed at so early an age, the one but twenty-three, 
and the other but twenty-five ; and yet for' years before, 
both, through grace, had made their happy choice for 
eternity, and in the service of that Lord, into whose joy 
they have now fully entered, had spent their brief, but 
happy life. Assuredly we have reason to mourn the loss 
our Sabbath School has sustained, in the removal of both, 
while from their very graves they seem to utter a voice 
to many a young and pious disciple, and affectionately 
to plead in behalf of their bereaved charge — "Work 
while it is day ; the night cometh wherein no one can 
work." 

We have not alluded to these things, with any inten- 



YOUTH. 93 

tion to eulogize the dead; could they speak, it would be 
to bid us rather throw the mantle over the imperfection 
of their best doings, or the thiugs they have left undone, 
than to utter a word of praise; but we do it for the com- 
fort and the instruction of the living. We do it for the 
glory of the grace of God, which shone so beautifully in 
them; we do it as an illustration of the principle of faith 
leading its happy possessor to rise above the world, and 

" Give to God each moment, as it flies;" 

consecrating the energies of the soul and the faculties 
of the body to His service, which is perfect, happy 
freedom. 

II. We hasten now to comtemplate the child of God at 
the close of such a life as this. 

A close there must come to the life of every man, 
fixed and determined; every day and every hour is draw- 
ing it nearer. Unpreparedness or unfitness for it cannot 
put it off. It is certain to all, it may be at the very door 
to some, and each is hastening unto it by filling up the 
measure of his iniquities, or growing in meetness for 
" the inheritance of the saints in light." Over the end 
of the ungodly we pass in silence, and we bid you "mark 
the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of 
that man is peace." It may be sudden ; but to such, 
sudden death is sudden glory. It may be marked by 
much bodily suffering, which may lay prostrate the en- 
tire faculties of the mind, and totally incapacitate for 
any spiritual exercises ; but that affects not the condition 
of the soul, over which it has no power, nor touches that 
peace, which it never can take away. " He has walked 
with God ;" we ask no more to assure us about his death. 
His heart and his flesh fail ; weakness destroys the one, 
and wanderings distract the other, but God is the 
strength of his heart and will be his portion forever. 



94 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

There is no preparation work then to commence. In the 
language of one of our friends, which she spake to me a 
short time before her death, "All is finished." "I can- 
not" — she said, alluding to the difficulty she had in 
speaking; but added, " It matters not; I have nothing 
to do ; my soul I have given to Jesus ; He has it, He will 
keep it to that day." 

We do not mean to assert, that in the sufferings 
which precede dissolution, the children of God may not 
be much tried and often severely harassed. Before the 
crown of everlasting triumph is put upon their heads, 
sharp and severe may be the last onset, through which, 
doubtless, they will come off more than conquerors, and 
remember it only to enhance the repose of victory. 

Greater strength and richer glory may surround the 
dying bed of some, we doubt not ; and that too, to mark 
God's own approval of a diligent cultivation of grace. 
For, as grace and glory differ not but in degree, it fol- 
lows, that the more of grace, the more abundant will be 
our entrance into the everlasting kingdom. And thus 
it is that the righteous shall "go in peace." 

Our departed friends have left an evidence of this, the 
fullest we could desire. The one whose continuance at 
home enabled me to visit her, said to me, in the certain 
prospect of death.. " Never so happy as now. I have no 
concern, except that I feel for my dear father ; and God 
can be to him ' better than sons or daughters.' " And a 
little before her death, in reply to the affectionate in- 
quiry, " If Jesus should be preparing you for His king- 
dom in glory, I hope you feel happy in the prospect, and 
that you can leave all and go to Him," — " Oh ! yes," she 
said, " that I can ; what a delightful thought, to be in 
heaven ! to have done with all the transitory things of 
time and sense, and to be in heaven ! " 

III. We must sum up the immediate consequences 



YOUTH. 95 

of death as it affects body and soul. The text in the 
interpretation to which we have alluded, seems to ns to 
refer to both. "They shall rest in their beds, each one 
walking in his uprightness." 

We have already said, that death is only the separa- 
tion of body and soul, a view in which the Scriptures 
constantly put it before us. Not that the consequences 
are precisely the same to both. Death, in emancipating 
the spirit, dissolves the earthly house of its tabernacle. 
The body is overborne by its power and sinks to corrup- 
tion ; but the soul is untouched, in its energies and in 
its life. " To be absent from the body, is to be present 
with the Lord." But yet, such is the wondrous purpose 
of love towards the body itself, such the event that awaits 
it, that although doomed to see corruption, in view of 
its coming triumph, death is more properly termed a 
sleep, and the grave, a bed. In darkness indeed it is 
made, but that only contributes to its peaceful slumber. 
Not more sweet the rest of night to the wearied traveler, 
or the laborer who has borne the burden and heat of the 
day, than the rest of the grave to the care-worn pilgrim 
— to the body burdened with its infirmities and oppressed 
with its sicknesses ; and what the disciples said to Christ, 
mistaking his meaning, of the death of Lazarus, is true 
of every saint who departs this life in the faith and fear 
of Jesus, "Lord if he sleep he shall do well." No cares 
shall press, and no sin shall grieve. The bustle and the 
noise of the world may go on as heretofore, and he lie 
quite forgotten, but they shall not reach to disturb his 
rest, nor shall aught awake him till the last trumpet an- 
nounces the approach of the great Conqueror, who will 
once again leave the glories of the upper world, to ac- 
complish the redemption of the body, and swell the song 
of triumph and of praise, as He answers the prayer of 
saints on earth and in heaven, " How long, Lord, how 



96 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

long ?" — ' It is finished, the number of Mine elect is ac- 
complished ; I go that I may awake each out of sleep.' 
Then will that which was " sown in corruption, be raised 
in incorruption ; that which was sown in weakness, be 
raised in power ; that which was sown in dishonor, be 
raised in glory, that which was sown a natural body, be 
raised a spiritual body." Thus it is, that the dying be- 
liever, in commending his soul to God, can leave the 
body with full assurance of a re-union : "My flesh shall 
rest in hope." 

This as to the body. The soul, at the very instant, 
enters into its rest — a rest not of inactive quiescency, but 
such as befits its powers. And long before the first gush- 
ings of affection have subsided of weeping relatives, and 
the door closes upon the forsaken and motionless form, the 
happy spirit, borne upon angels' wings hath traveled its 
celestial road, and finds itself with kindred spirits, "each 
one walking in its uprightness." Think, then, what 
death does to every believer. It emancipates the spirit ; 
it transfers it with perfect powers to a perfect world. It 
destroys every hindrance to its perfect service and its 
perfect bliss. It completes its walk with God. If the 
latter clause of the text be understood as descriptive of 
the saint walking with God on earth in uprightness, it 
follows not but that it is descriptive of the saint after 
death walking before God in uprightness. Grace was 
the region of the one, glory is the region of the other. 
Oh ! to contemplate them now each one walking before 
Him in her uprightness — each like the angels, in activ- 
ity, in service, in glory; each enjoying a Sabbath which 
will never end, associated with a congregation where 
nothing defiles, in strains immortal joining in the music 
of the spheres, seeing not through a glass darkly, but 
face to face, bearing the weight of glory and yet not bur- 
dened by it, and listening to the great Teacher himself 



YOUTH. 97 

unfolding His own promise — "What I do thou knowest 
not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." To awake to 
thoughts like these, our surprise at their early removal 
or our sorrow at their early death must alike be mod- 
erated. They are not lost, but gone before. Their ser- 
vice is not at an end, but infinitely exalted and perfected. 
Their sun may have gone down while yet it is day ; set 
prematurely, as we think, beneath our horizon ; but it 
has been only to rise again in the hemisphere of celestial 
brightness, where not a cloud will ever darken their glory, 
where their happy spirits will have full scope in their 
Redeemer's heaven, where the sun will no more go down 
and the moon never withdraw its shining, but the Lord 
will be their everlasting light, and their God their glory; 
and the days of their mourning, imperfection and sin 
ended. 



DYING m THE LOKD. 

REV. W. D. HORWOOD. 

ABERGAVENNY, MONMOUTH, ENGLAND. 

On the Death of Hiss H. 
"Blessed are (he dead which die in the Lord from henceforth : Yea, 
saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their 
works do follow them." Revelation xiv : 13. 

\ MONG all the dispensations of God to us there is 
not one more striking, more impressive, and more 
affecting than that of death. It comes to us all alike 
without any distinction, whether we are rich or poor, 
learned or unlearned, young or old. Such is the great 
fact of our mortality. And the manner of this visita- 
tion is oftentimes sudden and unexpected, coming, it 
may be, like a flash of lightning, swift, yet silent ; or 
like the darkening shadow of a thunder cloud, creeping 
on darker and darker, and then suddenly bursting into 
5 



98 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

sound, loud and terrific. It is well for us to bear this 
truth in remembrance, for the decree goes forth to 
destroy in the midst of man's revels and engagements, 
whether of sensual pleasure, or of ambition, or of covet- 
ousness, or of pride and self-esteem. The decree, too, 
goes forth in secret to destroy, and this without warn- 
ing. The earth was doomed to the flood one hundred 
and twenty years before "the decree brought forth," or 
men heard of it. The waters of Babylon had been 
turned, and the conqueror was marching into the city 
at the very time when Belshazzar was makiug ready for 
his feast. " Pride infatuates man, and self-indulgence 
and luxury work their way unseen, like some smoulder- 
ing fire which for a while leaves the outward forms of 
things unaltered. At length the decayed mass cannot 
hold together, and breaks by its own weight, or on some 
slight and accidental external violence." 

I. Let us consider the benediction of the text. 
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
henceforth :" 

1. & particular dead is here named, such as "die in 
the Lord." And the expression, "in the Lord," implies 
it may be conceived a close union with Christ in the 
glorious objects or purposes of His mission, in the 
benignity and grandeur of His life, in the supreme ex- 
cellency of His character, in the purity and beauty of 
His example, in the infinite love which led Him to the 
cross, and in the everlasting results of His mediation. 
Such an intimate union with Him implies also a reflec- 
tion of His Image in the soul. The blessedness, there- 
fore, of those "who die in the Lord," consists in their 
union with Him, in their being one with Him, in their 
security and shelter in Him, and in " their partaking of 
that glory and happiness which He has provided for 
them. When their bodies die, when their outward 



YOUTH. 99 

tabernacle is dissolved, they still being in Christ, have a 
house not built with hands eternal in the heavens. 
They pass away to the inheritance prepared for them. 

2. Thus we can trace the blessedness of those who 
"die in the Lord" onward to the resurrection, — "For 
the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a 
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the 
trump of God : and the dead in Christ shall rise first." 
They shall have the pre-eminence. They shall be the 
first to realize the glorious consummation of Christian 
faith and hope. In their blessedness, pronounced by 
the voice from heaven, in the resurrection of the just, 
they shall ascend from their earthly sepulchres into the 
clouds above them, " to meet the Lord in the air : and 
so shall ever be with the Lord." They who "die in the 
Lord " are blessed by all the grand and eternal issues of 
the resurrection, embracing all which throws a halo of 
hopeful brightness over the sleeping dead, and all that 
makes their resurrection an opened gateway to the Eden 
where no secret enemy lurks in ambush, where no form 
of death can enter, where no sigh or sound of grief is 
heard, and wheie all tears of the eyes are wiped away 
for evermore." 

II. The Divine response. "Yea, saith the Spirit, 
that they may rest from their labors ; and their works 
do follow them." 

1. In this response we have two reasons assigned for 
the benediction. The. first is rest; "They rest from 
their labors." The rest hereafter of the saints of God, 
will not be inert, like that of the rock, but it will be the 
rest of activity without fatigue or wearisomeness. We 
speak of the calm rest of stars, but they are constantly 
moving round their common centres, constantly work- 
ing out the grand designs of the Creator. And so with 
those who " rest from their labors " — from their earthly 



100 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

labors, from the toil of bodily exertion as well as of 
mental, from the labor attendant on earthly sufferings, 
on missions of Christian benevolence, on the struggles 
of adversity, and on the trials of temptation — in their 
heavenly rest they still are active, still carrying out the 
grand purposes of their being, but in their rest there is 
the quiet beauty of repose, the stillness of a lovely 
image reflected on a mirror. 

2. And the second reason is, "their works do follow 
them." The rewards and consequences of their good 
deeds and labors attend them in the eternal world. 
Thus, by our conduct here, we can make the present 
affect our future for good, and so lay the foundation for 
happiness millions of ages to come. 

It were presumptuous perhaps, in me to speak at 
much length of the character of her who has just de- 
parted from us, so well known among you, and through- 
out this town, and the whole of the county. Yet I well 
know of your high esteem for her, and it may be sooth- 
ing to hear a beloved person spoken of, even tbough the 
speaker fail of doing such a person justice. We are all 
more or less witnesses of her character, of those excel- 
lent qualities which have endeared her to her friends, 
and made her name respected. And now while we offer 
some humble tribute of affection to her memory, we are 
reminded by the church, in which we offer it, and the 
adjoining building, of that kindliness of heart, and of 
that true benevolence which can never be forgotten. 
But when the stone walls of these buildings shall 
crumble away and mingle with the dust ; when the 
proudest and noblest monuments of man's wealth and 
genius and munificence shall be no more ; the brightest 
memorial of our dear departed friend will still be found 
in the hearts of those she has benefited, for her works 
will follow her. 



TOUTB. 101 

"We are all of us without exception hastening to the 
last scene of all things earthly. Ere long the closing 
shadows of our day of life will gather around us more 
and more darkly, and then the night of death will close 
in upon us. But in that night may we behold the glo- 
rious light of the city, in which there is "no need of the 
sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it : for the glory 
of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light there- 
of :" — then may we realize in our souls the blessed mean- 
ing of the words — "Blessed are the dead which die in the 
Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the Spirit, that they 
may rest from their labors ; and their works do follow 
them." 



THE FADED FLOWEK. 

KEV. JAMES HUGHES. 

TROWBRIDGE, WILTS., ENGLAND. 
ON THE DEATH OP THE LATE MR. W. H. E. 

" The Jlower fadeth ; because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it." 
Isaiah xl: 7. 

nnHERE is something very affecting in the death of 
young people. To see a young man like our be- 
loved friend, in the morning of life, sicken, droop, and 
die, is a scene which, regarded in itself, apart from the 
hopes of the gospel is very saddening. But there is 
nothing new in this. .The language of the Book of Job 
is, " They die in youth." If this were indeed the first 
death of a young man, it would affect us most deeply. 
It would be like seeing the sun about eleven o'clock in 
the forenoon, sinking down and burying itself beneath 
the horizon, instead of running his usual course from 
east to west. Or to keep to the figure of the text, as if 
the flower when brusting forth, gradually unfolding its 



102 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

hidden beauties, and ere as yet it had reached its full 
proportions, checked in its expansion, were suddenly to 
droop and perish. But, alas ! the premature fading of 
the flower is so often seen in the gardens of mortals, and 
men, "in fulfilling their course," are so frequently ar- 
rested by the hand of death, and plunged into the dark- 
ness of the grave before the noon of life, that we fail to 
feel the deep and sad impression which such events are 
fitted to produce. It is once more brought home to us 
in the removal of one whom many of us knew, and 
whom to know, was also to respect and love. The word 
of God has made everything around us vocal with in- 
struction ; stamped its lessons of inspired wisdom on the 
page of nature, and rendered the whole world around 
and above us auxiliary to its purpose of sacred instruc- 
tion. The flower of the field is oft the subject of beauti- 
ful and affecting allusion in the word of God, as well 
an example of God's care, as also a type of frail and 
perishable humanity. The passages in which man is 
compared to a flower are many and striking — "He 
cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down." "As a 
floiver of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth 
over it, and it is gone ; and the place thereof shall know 
it no more." The same interesting figure is involved in 
the passage out of the midst of which we have selected 
our text, as well as in its parallel in 1 Peter i. 24, "For 
all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower 
of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof 
f alleth away. " These are a sample of those affecting 
passages in which the Spirit of God has rendered the 
perishing grass and the frail flower the emblems of our 
perishable and mortal nature. How strongly must we 
be reminded of such descriptions of humanity when 
called to mourn the loss of a young man in the prime of 
life. To see the frame, when it is usual for it to acquire 



YOUTH. 103 

additional strength and hardihood, shrinking away un- 
der the touch of disease, until the declining process 
results in death. At once the thought of the fading 
flower presents itself to our minds, and we seem to hear 
a voice which says to us, Cry — "The flower fadeth ; 
because the spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it," we 
notice — 

I. That the flower is beautiful. Flowers are made as 
if to ornament the world. There is no man, however 
blunt his senses, who does not at once perceive the 
beauty of a flower. Some flowers are much more beauti- 
ful than others. But every kind, especially of culti- 
vated flowers is beautiful. And is there not in man, 
regarded as the creature of God, something that is beau- 
tiful ? " The human face Divine." There is something 
in the bodily formation of man that renders him more 
attractive than any other creature in the world. His 
superiority among all other creatures of God below the 
skies, entitles him to be called "the flower" of this lower 
creation. Nor can we wonder at this, when we remem- 
ber that man was made to be " the temple of the Holy 
Ghost." How great must have been the beauty of " man 
primeval" when God had just made him. His soul 
and body pure and spotless. His external form corres- 
ponding to the inward excellence. The earthen vessel 
as yet unmarred, fit casket of a pure and holy spirit. 
"The earthly house of this tabernacle," stamped with 
such external beauty as befitted the spiritual opulence 
of its immortal resident. His face radiant with the 
image of God ; the God of light and love, in whose like- 
ness he was made. Truly, he could have been only "a 
little lower than the angels " when God set him over the 
works of his hands. What majesty and grace there must 
have been in the whole bearing and movements of the 
new creature. The last and best made of the whole of 



104 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

this lower creation, God's chief workmanship, the perfec- 
tion of his creatures here below. Surely the human 
flower beamed with beauty when its Great Creator had 
newly formed and planted it in Eden. But, alas, the 
blight of sin has brought a dimness over the splendor, 
and much of the original beauty is lost. Nevertheless, 
there is something still in man to remind us of the 
primeval dignity and loveliness. And it is evident that 
man alone of all other creatures in the world is intended 
to be "the shrine of Deity," "the habitation of God 
through the Spirit." There is something in the struc- 
ture of man which seems to say plainly, "You were in- 
tended to be the temple of God!" Alas! Satan has usurped 
the seat of God ; sin reigns in the dwelling place of 
holiness, and as the fruit of this, much of the beauty is 
gone. We see bad and vile passions oft depicted in the 
"form and fashion" of the countenance. Anger and 
hatred put in their lineaments, vile lust paints some of 
the features, a sour selfishness reflects itself, and some- 
times a dark despondency overshadows the face of man. 
The dominion of unholy feeling, and the practice of 
sensual habits embrute and demonize the human face, 
so that " the show of their countenance doth witness 
against them." But when the soul comes fully under 
the dominion of God's sanctifying grace, much of the 
original beauty is retrieved, and an habitual course of 
devotion and piety is oft seen to give to " the outer 
man" a heavenly stamp, the mark of the Lamb in the 
forehead. Moses brought down with him from his long 
communion with God on Sinai a face that shone with 
glory. And the council as they looked stedfastly on 
Stephen "saw his face as it had been the face of an 
angel " — a face in which beamed forth angelic sweet- 
ness and dignity, the result perhaps of a special baptism 
of heavenly fire which at that moment came upon him. 



tOXJTB. 105 

Nor can we think of the change through which Saul of 
Tarsus passed during the three days of his spiritual birth, 
without supposing that it left its record on the face of 
the Cilieian Israelite. It is not too much to think that 
the fiery gleam of his dark eye and the hauteur of the 
young persecutor's countenance were among the " old 
things/' all of which "passed away." And that when 
he became numbered with the " elect of God, holy and 
beloved, and put on bowels of mercies, kindness and 
long-suffering," there came up also over his noble 
countenance a softened expression. 

None who will be able to recall the form of our be- 
loved young friend, but will remember that there was 
in him much that was lovely to the eye. There was a 
"goodliness" in the flower, a "grace" in "the fashion 
of it." That the love of Christ had much to do with 
this I have no doubt. He was early converted to God, 
and being in possession of deep and sincere piety, the 
inward life of God gave beauty to the flower which has, 
alas, now faded away before our eyes. If he had con- 
tracted and pursued evil habits, like many other young 
men, the beauty of the flower would have been marred. 
We should not have seen that habitual cheerfulness which 
reigned around and lighted up the features of our young- 
friend, for it sprang from the peace of God. We should 
have missed that well known openness and benevolence of 
expression; for it was produced by the " truth and 
grace" which were in him. We should have looked in 
vain for that purity which beamed forth in him, for 
that was the result of sanctifying love. The beauty of 
this faded flower was the " beauty of holiness." But if 
the flower was beautiful here, how much more so now ? 
If our vision could follow him into that crowd of beau- 
teous forms which encircle the throne of God, and dis- 
tinguish him there, surely we should find, that his 
5* 



106 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

change has greatly heightened his loveliness. It is im- 
possible for us to understand the mighty effect produced 
upon the spirit by the vision of God our Saviour in his 
glorified form. The contenrplation of Jesus through a 
glass darkly, is transforming ; how much more, when 
with unveiled vision we gaze on " the king in his beauty!" 

Our brother has passed away from us ; gone from the 
holy into the holiest ; has " departed to be with Christ;" 
and how much more like Christ is he now become ? 
" We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is!" 
Bat are the saints with Christ as soon as the breath 
passes away from their nostrils ? 

It is not necessary that we should be prepared to 
solve all the mysteries of such a subject. It is far more 
important and appropriate to us to inquire whether the 
Scriptures teach the existence of the soul in the separate 
state. 

1. Look at the representation which our Lord gives of 
the matter in the case of the rich man and Lazarus. ' ' The 
beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abra- 
ham's bosom. What was carried by the angels into 
Abraham's bosom? The soul, undoubtedly, and not the 
body. So again in the opposite case — " The rich man 
also died, and was buried ; and in hell lifted up his eyes 
being in torments." The body found a resting-place in 
some ornamented sepulchre, but the soul was cast into 
the abyss of woe, the deep grave of those who are sepa- 
rated to endless death. Here it is evident that the soul 
lived, and was conscious of joy in the one case, and of 
torment in the other, immediately after death. We 
draw this inference from this portion of our Lord's 
teaching irrespective of any interpretation evidently 
adopted for the sake of theory, 

2. Again, our Lord's reply to the prayer of the penitent 
thief on the cross agrees with the foregoing view. 



TOUTS. 107 

"Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy king- 
dom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, 
To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." " To day," 
ere thy crucified body is taken down from the cross, 
soon as the mortal struggle is over, "thou shalt be with 
me, (whom in thy last hour thou hast confessed before 
men,) in paradise," I shall be there, to receive thee. 
" Paradise " is thought of by some under the notion of 
heaven's ante-chamber. But if there be any accuracy in 
this view, it is an ante-chamber not because the site or 
locality is somewhere short of the Divine presence ; but 
rather on the ground of the incomplete and expectant 
condition of the saints between their departure and the 
sound of the " trump of God." " Waiting ," (as in an 
ante-chamber,) "for the adoption, to wit, the redemp- 
tion of the body," until which event the glory and the 
bliss of "the heirs of God" will not be full. 

3. With this agrees Apostolic Teaching. ' ' Therefore, " 
says St. Paul, "we are always confident, knowing that 
whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from 
the Lord — (for we walk by faith and not by sight) — we 
are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from 
the body and to be present with the Lord." If the apos- 
tle's view is correct, the sanctified soul dwelling in the 
body is absent from the Lord. But ceasing to dwell in 
the body it is at once placed in the presence of our Lord ; 
and hence elsewhere he expresses "A desire to depart 
and to be with Christ, which is far better." To depart and 
to be with Christ being inseparable, the one leading at 
once and invariably to the other. 

From the foregoing considerations we joyfully infer 
that holy souls enter at once into a conscious and happy 
existence upon the dissolution of the frame. And is it 
not in accordance with this truth, we read of "the 
spirits of just men made perfect," spirits as yet without 



108 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

the body. Whatever difficulty therefore may appear to 
us in conceiving a spirit's existence apart from a mate- 
rial vehicle ; it is clearly revealed to us that souls, 
whether holy or unholy, cease not to exist between death 
and the resurrection morn. Let us therefore feel assured 
that our young brother, who has lately left us, is now in 
the enjoyment of a conscious and blissful existence. 
That which formed the seat of intelligence and holiness 
in him still endures. It was not the wasted frame 
which lie left behind him that thought and felt, adored 
and worshipped, trusted and loved Christ, but some- 
thing spiritual, and that something was the living and 
loving soul which still lives, and shall live forever. 
And if we divested of the fleshy veil could but "see him 
as he is," we should find the spirit of this just young 
man made perfect, beautiful, and radiant, reflecting the 
image of the Son of God. And as it respects its old 
frail companion which it has left behind, the "vile 
body," it also shall rest in hope, and although it shall 
" see corruption " yet " this corruptible shall put on in- 
corruption." what a glorious change shall pass upon 
the dissolved frame when glorious and beautiful, like 
the present form of Him who loved us, it shall rise from 
its quiet resting-place. For " the Lord himself shall de- 
scend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the 
archangel and with the trump of God, and the dead in 
Christ shall rise first." 

"And every form, and every face, , 
Be heavenly and divine." 

And henceforth the flower shall have more even than 
its primeval beauty and splendor. 

II. But though beautiful "the flower" is frail. And 
this is one of the chief reasons why it stands as the em- 
blem of feeble man. The withering grass, the fragile 



YOUTH. 109 

flower the frailest of all the vegetable productions of the 
earth are the pictures of our perishable nature. It is not 
the tree of expansive girt, which bears up under the re- 
peated strokes of the ax, not the sturdy oak which 
braves the rude storms of centuries, but the flower, slen- 
der and easily injured, which trembles even in the 
breeze, is prostrated by the storm, and may be crushed 
by the foot of the heedless passenger. Various are the 
means by which the life of the flower may be destroyed ; 
sometimes it is cut down and withereth ; " at other 
times it is nipped by the cold blast and perishes ; or it is 
seen to decay, and to reach its destruction by a gradual 
process, because a worm at the root is extracting its life. 
The flower is easily injured, a very slight thing may 
prove fatal to its existence ; such also is man ; what 
trivial causes have often operated to the destruction of 
health and life. What innumerable means may remove 
man from the face of the earth. 

While all are frail, some are peculiarly so ; it is their 
lot to inherit a feeble and delicate frame, predisposed to 
disease. This most likely was the case with our la- 
mented friend. He was a lovely, but frail flower ; and 
the dreaded consumption, by the permission of God, 
fixed its fangs in the frail frame, and though assailed 
by medical skill and effort, never relinquished its hold 
until "the precious life" was destroyed, "Cease ye 
from man, whose breath is in his nostrils. For where- 
in is he to be accounted for." 

III. The flower is short lived. All flowers are not 
of equal duration ; some perish speedily, but none of 
them last long ; they come forth, and for a season they 
please us with their gay appearance ; but by and by we 
see signs of decay. The flower is fading, and soon the 
place thereof knows it no more. Thus it is with human 
beings. Some perish in the very bud of their existence, 



110 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

they scarcely peep forth above the soil ere they are 
swept away ; others live to develope their physical and 
mental properties more fully, and like the full blown 
flower are cut down in their prime ; and some (though 
their number is comparatively small), live through the 
usual stages of human life, until a gradual decay of 
nature brings them to the dust of death. Yet man, at 
best, like the flower of the field is short lived. 

Jacob considered his days few whether in retrospect 
or prospect as he stood a bending figure on the brink 
of the unending days of eternity. The words of the 
Psalmist are so humbling, that the lofty looks of man 
are at once brought down in their presence, and the 
pride of the heart perishes under their influence — 
"Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth, and mine 
age is as nothing before thee." Before thee, who "art 
from everlasting to everlasting." It is in comparison 
with eternity, with infinite duration, that our life on 
earth shrinks away into an almost inappreciable point. 
0, what is life, our brief life on earth, in comparison 
with everlasting existence ? How short a period must 
it appear when looked back upon from the eternal world. 
How small must "the span of life" appear to our 
brother now, compared with that unending eternity on 
which he has entered. Well might the apostle regard it 
as of momentary duration. For truly it is no more in 
contrast with eternity ; it is the lightning flash, we are 
born, we live, we die, and how quickly do these im- 
portant facts follow each other in our history. And yet 
how vastly important is this brief period ; inasmuch, as 
during it alone can we acquire a meetness for eternal 
glory. Our conduct in time determines our condition 
for eternity. During our life's short day we acquire a 
character which will cleave to us forever, and will form 
to us a source of endless bliss or woe. 



YOUTH. Ill 

IV. There is fragrance in flowers, and much more in 
some than in others. The scent is also sweet in some, 
in others it is sickly and offensive. Let this remind us 
of that moral influence which all men exert more or less 
upon others. "We carry with us in all our movements in 
human society an influence which, like the fragrance of 
the flower, always surrounds us. This is less in some 
than in others. Station, talents, wealth, and force of 
character may give to some greater influence than others 
either for good or evil. Yet all alike have a measure of 
influence ; every human flower scents to some extent the 
social atmosphere. In some the influence is sweet, re- 
viving, and hallowing ; in others it is poisonous and 
soul-destroying ; some carry God with them, and they 
diffuse a divine influence whithersoever they go ; others, 
alas ! carry Satan with them and in them, and by their 
foul and foolish talk, and " their pernicious ways," they 
corrupt and destroy. Our influence while under the 
power of " the carnal mind " is for evil, we live to 
alienate men from God. Until possessed of decisive 
piety, we gather not to Christ, but scatter abroad, keep 
souls away from the refuge and the rest of guilty man. 
But when the flower becomes well baptized and pene- 
trated with the dews of the Spirit — when the breath of 
the Lord passes through and purifies it, then its poison- 
ous properties are destroyed, and it ceases to send forth 
its deadly exhalations. Then " if we live we live unto 
the Lord, and if we die, we die unto the Lord, living or 
dying we are the Lord^s." 

It was the happiness of our young friend to have 
been ' ' born of God " at an early period of life, and this 
blessed change prepared him to exert a good influence 
upon those with whom he was associated. When 
"Christ" became "formed in him," the flower sent 
forth a gracious fragrance. It was felt by the young 



112 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

men with whom lie was associated in business, several of 
whom he had a share in leading to salvation while he 
lived in the establishment from which he retired to die. 
The fragrance of a flower of ttimes increases in dying. 
And so it is with the Christian ; as he approaches his end 
while the hand of death is upon him, he exerts a more 
powerful influence than through life — " Go into the 
chamber where the good man meets his fate," and it 
seems filled with heavenly fragrance. Very obtuse in- 
deed must his sensibilities be who does not deeply feel 
the influence which the dying Christian diffuses around 
his death-bed. It is at once perceived and felt by those 
who are spiritual. A solemn, unearthly influence which 
awes and melts the heart. It was oft felt by those who 
visited our young brother during his late affliction — 

" His final hour brought glory to his God." 

V. The fading of the flower is inevitable. Perish it 
must. Place it in the most favorable position and yet 
you cannot preserve it ; seek for it a nook where it shall 
be sheltered from " the wind's unkindly blast," as well 
as from "the sun's directer ray," and yet "the momen- 
tary glories will waste, the short lived beauties will die 
away ; " cover it with glass, train and shelter it in the 
conservatory, and yet you cannot long conserve its frail 
life. The flower after all your care will perish. How 
strictly applicable to man whose death is no less certain 
than the fading of the flower. Attend bo health with 
the most scrupulous care, surround yourselves with all 
the guards against disease and accident which human 
device and ingenuity may call into existence. And yet, 
after all, beyond the boundary which God has assigned 
to us, we cannot pass — "For is there not an appointed 
time for man upon the earth seeing his days are deter- 



YOUTH. 113 

mined, and the number of bis months are with God! He 
bath set him his bounds that he cannot pass." The 
Great Author of our being has fixed at least the maxi- 
mum of our stay on earth. Beyond this we cannot go ; 
though, alas ! we may come short even of this. Hence 
we read that "the wicked shall not live out half his 
days." The death of the flower is so certain, that you 
can name a period when you know it shall have occurred; 
you cannot, it is true, name the precise moment when 
the last particle of life shall have left the flower ; but it 
would be an easy matter for you to name a time when 
you know it must be dead, and when "the place thereof 
shall know it no more." Even so, the period of our de- 
parture is to us unknown, nothing can be more uncertain. 
The time and the circumstances under which we shall 
breathe our last are wisely concealed from us ; yet it 
would be easy to name a time when not one of us shall 
be left on earth. The days of our years, are three score 
years and ten ; and if by reason of strength they be four 
score years, yet is their strength then but labor and sor- 
row, so soon passeth it away and we are gone. So that 
each may say with Job in his affliction — "When a few 
years are come, then I shall go the way whence I shall 
not return." 

Lastly, "The flower fadeth; because the spirit of the 
Lord bloweth upon it." The meaning is "the wind of 
the Lord ; " the same word in Hebrew as in some other 
languages, having the signification of wind and of spirit. 
Bishop Lowth renders the words "the wind of Jehovah 
bloweth upon it." The allusion is doubtless to the hot 
winds which prevail in the east, blasting and consuming 
every green thing over which they pass. The Psalmist 
evidently alludes to this hot wind — (Psalm ciii. 15, 16.) 
"As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind 



114 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

passeth over it, and it is gone ; and the place thereof 
shall know it no more." 

The flower fades and perishes when a wind under the 
control and direction of God passeth over it. And thus 
would we connect the providence of God with the re- 
moval of our young brother, whose wasting some of us 
have watched during the few last months. If "a spar- 
row falleth not to the ground without our Father," how 
much less can a Christian, a child of God, be smitten 
down by the hand of death without his cognizance and 
permission ? " Precious in the sight of the Lord is the 
death of his saints," and the death which is thus "pre- 
cious " in his sight can be no chance work. Hence Job — 
" I know that tlwu wilt bring me to death, and to the 
house appointed for all living ; " thou who hast the keys 
of death and of Hades. It was the hand of a Friend, 
his Almighty and Everlasting Friend, that led our 
brother down to his quiet resting place in the dust. The 
consuming disease by which the frame was wasted, was 
only the wind of the Lord destroying the life of the 
flower. "He shall blow upon them, and they shall 
wither." 

When we see a young man sicken and die, as the re- 
sult of a cold, over-exertion, or hereditary tendency, we 
are in danger of so interpreting the whole as to exclude 
the immediate and special providence of God. But we 
should remember that God veils himself behind second- 
ary causes ; for "the trial of our faith," for the ex- 
ercise of which there could be no room, if he worked 
manifestly in the sight of our eyes. And if "we walk 
by faith, and not by sight," we shall recognize the inter- 
ference of an all wise God in the removal of this amiable 
and useful young man, from whose ashes we are 
endeavoring to extract lessons that shall fit us to pass 
with a triumphant courage like his, "through the 



YOUTH. 115 

valley of the shadow of death." no, lovely youth, it 
was uot chance that removed thee, it was thy Master's 
voice that said unto thee, " It is enough ; come up 
hither !" 



IMMORTAL LIFE. 

KEV. JAMES SMITH. 

SOUTHWARK, ENGLAND. 

" Who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality 
to light through the Gospel." — 2 Timothy i : 10. 

TMMORTALITY naturally and essentially belongs to 
God alone, and that is said by the apostle, in his 
first epistle to Timothy, referring to the Eternal One — 
"who only hath immortality, &c." And in another 
part of the same epistle, we find him celebrating 
Jehovah as the immortal — "unto the King eternal, im- 
mortal, invisible, the only wise God." God is naturally 
and essentially immortal, but immortality does not 
naturally and essentially belong to any creature. 

By "Life and Immortality," in the language of the 
text, we simply understand immortal life, or existence 
incapable of decay. Adam was not, in the sense of our 
text, possessed of immortal life — of existence incapable 
of decay ; but the Gospel has brought to light this 
glorious fact, that there is an existence in another state, 
for creatures such as we are, incapable of decay. 

It is an existence without sin ; for in sin is involved 
and included all the elements of destruction, and no- 
thing can remove the elements of destruction, but the 
removal of sin. The state of existence, to which we are 
destined as believers in Christ, is a state of existence 
without sin ; when all that is intended by depravity, and 
pollution, and corruption, and transgression, shall be 



116 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

completely done away, therefore is it that we rejoice in 
singing— 

"There shall we see His face, 
And never, never sin ; 
There from the rivers of His grace, 
Diink endless pleasures in." 

It is a state of existence without sickness. 

And as a matter of course, there will be no pain. 

And that fear, which is such a source of torment, 
will be done away. Frequently a little matter agitates, 
and prevents enjoyment for years together ! But in that 
state of existence, which is " brought to light by the 
Gospel," there will be no cause for fear ; there will be 
nothing that will cause the spirit to tremble, or the 
spirit to shrink. 

It is a state of existence, in the possession of all that 
can ennoble, gratify, and delight. Nothing can be de- 
vised, which can be conferred upon the mind or body of 
man, that will not be conferred upon the minds and 
bodies of the Lord's people, in a brighter and better 
state. 

" Life with Holiness." Holiness is the principal per- 
fection of God's nature, so holiness will be the principal 
characteristic of the Lord's people, in a better state. 
"We shall be then in the possession of a holy nature, sur- 
rounded by a holy element, in company with holy 
society, occupied in holy employments. 

"Life," with knowledge; for immortal life stands 
virtually in connection with spiritual knowledge. "This 
is life eternal, that they migh,t know Thee, the only 
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." 
Here we hear of Him, and think of Him, and speak of 
Him, but there we shall know Him in another and a 



YOUTH. 117 

superior manner to that in which we know Him at 
present. 

It will be life, with peace in perfection, and life in 
the possession of joy ; and all the future will be the 
anticipation of perfect satisfaction. 

It is life with God — we shall be "for ever with the 
Lord " — life in the presence, life in the possession, and 
life in the enjoyment of God. It is said, that "our 
lives are hid with Christ in God, and that when Christ, 
who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear 
with Him in glory." 

It is life of the most perfect kind, in the highest 
degree. The highest kind of life will, in all the ex- 
perience of the Lord's holy ones, be wrought up to the 
highest degree of perfection, and, in that state, it will 
be spent to reflect His honor, to perpetuate the glory of 
His grace, and for the honor of His glorious perfections, 
for ever. 

In other words, it is life in employment, and in en- 
joyment. " They shall serve Him day and night in His 
temple." God himself shall dwell among them, and 
shall be their God, and "the Lamb which is in midst of 
the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
Jiving fountains of waters ; and God shall wipe away all 
tears from their eyes." 

II. We notice the revelation : "Life and immortality 
are brought to light;" intimating that immortal life was 
obscure before. 

The heathen had some idea of a state of immortal 
existence for the soul, but not for the body ; although 
according to the Gospel, immortality is intended for the 
body equally with the soul. Hence we have those sub- 
lime passages in the fifteenth of the first epistle to the 
Corinthians, where the apostle, speaking of the body, 
says, in the forty-second verse — " It is sown in corrup- 



118 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

tion, &c." And again, in the fifty-second verse he says, 
"In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last 
trump : for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall 
be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed, &c." 
But even under the old economy, though the resurrec- 
tion was known, immortal life was not clearly revealed, 
as it is under the present dispensation, by the everlast- 
ing Gospel. There were, as in the sixteenth Psalm, 
several faint intimations of a glorious and happy state of 
existence beyond the present ; but the subject was never 
presented in so clear a light, as it was by Jesus Christ. 
He " brought life and immortality to light." 

He "brought to light," the purpose of God, which 
was to be wrought out through all the opposition of sin 
and Satan, and of man under their influence, that He 
would have a people possess an immortal existence in- 
capable of decay — a life of the highest kind, in the most 
perfect degree and immortality to light." 

He not only "brought to light" the purpose, but the 
promise. John the sixth chapter and the fortieth verse 
—"This is the will of Him that sent Me, &c." The 
will of God is this ; that everlasting life should be the 
possession and inheritance of every one that believed on 
Jesus Christ, and placed implicit confidence on Him for 
salvation ; and he is to be "raised up again at the last 
day." 

He not only "brought to light" the promise, but 
He was himself the example. You know He yielded to 
tbe death upon the cross. When He had finished the 
work, He shouted— "It is finished;" "Father, into 
Thy hands I commend My spirit." He then dropped 
His sacred head upon His bosom, and "gave up the 
ghost." He was taken down by Joseph of Arimathea, 
wrapped in linen with spices, and laid in the sejmlchre. 
There He lay for three days ; but on the third morning 



YOUTH. 119 

He arose, and showed our feet the way. He came forth 
in the possession of immortal life, with an immortal 
body and an immortal soul. There was an immortal 
Person — there was the head and representative of His 
Church, the substitute and surety of His family, step- 
ping from a prison-house, liberating from Divine justice, 
presenting Himself to His witnesses, and showing them 
what immortal life meant, and that it was to be attained 
by passing through the dreary prison-house of death. 
And that after He had been with them forty days, and 
had instructed them in the things pertaining to His 
kingdom, He led them to Olivet, and there pronounced 
His parting benediction, and there ascended, in the 
presence of them all, and was received with a welcome 
to the right hand of the Father, where "He ever liveth 
to make intercession for us." 

He exhibited eternal life, as a blessing promised to 
the Church. This is the promise which He hath 
promised — eternal life, which includes eveiything else. 
Therefore, if God has promised us heaven, He has 
promised us all which is necessary to take us to heaven. 
" This," says the apostle John, with emphasis — "this is 
the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and 
this life is in His Son." 

He not only exhibited it to us as a blessing promised, 
but as a prize to be gained; for there is nothing in the 
Gospel to sanction indolence. Freely given, promised 
of mere grace, yet it is to be obtained as a prize ; and 
therefore we find the apostle thus exhort Timothy, in 
the preceding epistle : " But thou, man of God, flee 
these things," (alluding to certain evils,) "and follow 
after righteousness, godliness, faith, &c." " And every 
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all 
things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; 
but we an incorruptible." 



120 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

The parallel. The apostle drawing the parallel 
between the two heads, or public representatives, in the 
fifth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, says at the 
twentieth verse — " Moreover the law entered, that the 
offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace 
did much more abound : that, &c." Grace is upon a 
throne, grace sways a sceptre, and the design of the 
government of grace is, to put us in possession of eternal 
life. 

It was "brought to light," as the great object of 
hope, upon which the eye of hope is to be fixed, from 
time to time. And what made primitive Christians so 
cheerful, and dauntless, and bold, and courageous, was 
this: they "were living" (says St. Paul) "in hope of 
eternal life, which God who cannot lie, promised before 
the world began." Mercy is represented as crowning 
with eternal life the beloved family ; and therefore the 
apostle Jude says, — " But ye, behold, building up your- 
selves on your most holy faith, praying in .the Holy 
Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for 
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life." 
"The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is 
eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 

To bring "life and immortality to light," and to put 
us in possession of it, was the great end of His mission ; 
and therefore, speaking figuratively, in the tenth chapter 
of John and the tenth verse, He says — "The thief 
cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: 
I am come that they might have life, and that they 
might have it more abundantly." 'lam come to put 
them in possession of immortal life, in absolute perfec- 
tion.' So we find him speaking of his authority and 
power, in the seventeenth of John and the second verse 
— "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that 
He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast giv- 



YOUTH. 121 

en Him." He has, therefore, "brought life and im- 
mortality," or immortal life, " to light." 

III. The means, by which this blessing is M brought 
to light," is "the Gospel." In one view of it, the Gospel 
is a kind of telescope, without which it is impossible 
to look so far into the distance, as to see immortal life. 
There it is in the distance, but our faculties are so 
weakened by sin, and the mists of ignorance have so 
gathered between us and it, that it is necessary there 
should be something to bring the mind's eye into contact 
with it. The Gospel is that something. It brings the 
subject near, just in the same way as a telescope seems 
to bring the distant object near ; so that we can look at 
it, gaze upon it, examine it, admire it, and enjoy it. 
"The grace of God hath appeared." Bursting forth, 
like the sun from behind a cloud, it shone upon the sub- 
ject of immortal life ; and we can now perceive it, and 
perceive it to be attainable by us, so that we may press 
on towards it, and anticipate a complete enjoyment of 
it. He "hath brought life and immortality to light, 
by the Gospel." 

The Gospel brings " life and immortality to light," 
because it shows us how we may get rid of sin, the cause 
of death. Man may get rid of the guilt of sin, by the pre- 
cious, perfect, infinite atonement of Jesus Christ ; he 
may get rid of the pollution of sin, by the application 
of the truth, and the indwelling and work of the Holy 
Spirit in the heart. _ It tells him how sin may be par- 
doned, how pardoned sin may be subdued, how subdued 
sin may be eradicated, and how the person, over whom 
it once reigned, may be released from the dominion of 
it for ever. 

The Gospel not only tells how we may get rid of sin, 
the cause of death, but how we may obtain justification, 
the title to life. It presents Jesus to us, as the glori- 
6 



122 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

fied Saviour, and says — ' ' Through this man is preached 
unto you the forgiveness of sin: and hy Him, all that 
believe are justified from all things, from which they 
could not be justified by the law of Moses." 

It informs us how we may surmount every obstacle 
that w T ould keep us from the possession and enjoyment 
of it. It brings to our help the power of God, the wis- 
dom of God, and the Spirit of God ; in other words, it 
presents to us the Saviour, in all His fulness, and tells 
us how to every believer in Him He " is made wisdom, 
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 

The Gospel informs us, that although at present death 
looks on us, and is all around us, }^et we may be raised 
into another atmosphere, the very opposite to the pre- 
sent ; and therefore it is said, in Romans v. 17 — "For 
if by one man's offense death reigned by one ; much 
more &c." — "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will 
give thee a crown of life." 

So it is to be immortal life, and everything immortal 
around us. The crown we wear, the robes with which 
we are decked, the palms we wave, the tree on which we 
feed, and the river from which we drink, are all im- 
mortal. He "hath brought life and immortality to 
light," for he hath brought immortal life to light, "by 
the Gospel." 

We have thus very hastily run over our subject, 
having presented but a mere outline, for your meditation. 
There is in it a depth, a grandeur, a glory, which we 
confess we cannot reach, much less set before you in a 
brief discourse, like the present. Our young friend 
knows more of it than we do ; for though her body 
slumbers in yonder grave-yard, where we recently placed 
it, her immortal spirit shines before the eternal throne, 
and knows something of what immortality pervading, 
clothing, and filling the immortal mind of man is. 



YOUTH. 123 

1 have a brief account of the departed to read to you 
upon the present occasion, communicated partly by her- 
self, and partly by those who knew her best. 

' ' Our young friend, whose death has brought us to 
gether was the only child of godly parents. She was 
from early childhood of a dutiful, and affectionate dis- 
position." 

" She was naturally very quiet and reserved in her 
manners. She was the subject of serious impressions, 
when quite young ; but it was chiefly by the school at 
Amersham, through her teacher's affectionate addresses 
to her, and fervent prayers with her, that she was led 
to see her real condition, as a sinner, in the sight of 
God, and to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ for refuge. 
The things of G-od had engaged much of her attention 
through the last few years, and as she fully expected tc 
reside in London, she proposed herself to the church oi 
Christ in this place, and was publicly united to Oliristj 
in baptism, on the twenty-second of February last 
Early in September, she was taken seriously ill, and felt 
persuaded that it would be unto death ; but she felt no 
fear, she experienced no alarm, for she knew Him who 
is ' the resurrection and the life.' She had familiarized 
herself with death by meditation upon it, and by the 
frequent approach of it to her friends. While sensible 
she was exceedingly happy in her mind, rejoicing that 
she had fixed her hope on Jesus, and on Him alone. 
Spiritual hymns had for some time engaged her atten- 
tion, in an unusual manner ; and after returning from 
the means of grace the last time, she felt extraordinarily 
filled with joy and peace, which led her to talk very 
seriously to the servant, to read the Word of God to her, 
and then, (which she had never done before,) to pray 
with her. She had never been known to pray with any 
one, until that evening. In private she had constantly 



124 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

poured out her soul to God, but her youth, and her dif- 
fidence had kept her back from praying with any one 
else before. To her mother she said — ' I am not sorry 
that I made an open profession when I did, but I feel 
thankful that 1 showed to the world that I am on the 
Lord's side.'" 

My youDg friends, these things speak to you. It 
was said of our departed friend, of whom I have been 
speaking, that she ventured her soul on Christ ; and if 
you do not, yon are eternally undone. There is no one 
that can bear you up on a dying bed, when death lias 
begun his work, but the Lord Jesus ; for "there is sal- 
vation in none other ;" " there is no other name under 
heaven, given among men, whereby you must be saved." 

It was said again, that on her dying pillow, our 
departed friend said — "I am glad I professed Christ 
when I did — that I told the world on whose side I was." 
Are there any of our young friends present, who are 
believers, but have never confessed it ? Are there any, 
who do love Christ, but have never professed Him ? 
TVe have known those, who have regretted that they 
have neglected it in health, when lying upon a bed of 
sickness. Our young friend did not neglect it. TTe say, 
therefore, to you, undecided ones, decide, and let your 
decision be now; and we say to you all — "Be ye also 
ready." Live for eternity, and not for time ; "for in 
such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man cometh.*'" 
Immortal life is ''brought to light." But will you 
possess it ? will you enter into it ? are you seeking 
"glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life?" 



"I may sometimes tremble on the rock, but, blessed 
be the Lord, the rock never trembles under me." 



YOUTH. 125 



THE CHRISTIAN'S DESIRE. 

KEY. FRANCIS ELLABY, B.A. 

ON THE DEATH OF MISS , AGED 22 SEVEN DIALS, LONDON. 

11 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, 
what it is; that 1 may know how frail 1 am." — Psalm xxxix : 4. 

r jHHERE is an embarrassing uncertainty attending all 
human affairs. It is as true in man's experience, 
as it is in the record of Scripture, '* We know not what 
a day may bring forth." To-day all may be joy ; to- 
morroio some sad event occurs, and overwhelms the whole 
with sorrow: — to-day all is gay and exhilarating as sum- 
mer; to-morrow, all is dull and depressing as winter : a 
man may have much treasure laid up in a store ; but by 
a sudden reverse, he may be deprived of the whole, and 
impoverished, and ruined : to-day, his children sur- 
round his board, and he is happy with the partner of his 
joys and sorrows, in the enjoyment of domestic bliss ; 
to-morroiu, sad truth ! brings evil tidings, he is either 
childless or widowed. That which a man has least rea- 
son to expect, too often comes ; or with Job, he may 
have to say, " The thing which I greatly feared is come 
upon me> and that which I was afraid of, is come unto 
me." Powerty in place of affluence — enmity for friend- 
ship — sorrow for gladness — pain for ease — sickness for 
health, or death for life ! Transitions these to which 
all are liable ; circumstances with which many are but 
too well acquainted, and one of which, at least, will, 
sooner or later, be the portion of all. "It is appointed 
unto all men, once to die." "Is there not an appointed 
time to man upon earth are not his days also like the 
days of an hireling ? 

And if these things be true, shall we not do well if 
we adopt the words of the text, for personal and con- 



126 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

stant meditation? "Lord, make me to know mine 
end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I know 
how frail I am." 

I. The text, contains : 

1. A desire to be instructed of the Lokd, in order 
that he might obtain a sure knowledge of a peaceful end. 
" Lord, make me to know mine end" 

%. A desire to have impressed upon the mind an 
abiding sense of the shortness of life. To keep the man 
from folly, from the vain gratification of the senses, 
from a wasteful expenditure, from the misimprovemeut 
of time, and especially, from an untimely end. ' ' Lord, 
make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, 
what it is." This knowledge seems to have been granted, 
so far as it could be profitably or safely possessed. Ver. 
5. " Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadtb, 
and my age is as nothing before thee ; verily, every man 
in his best state, is altogether vanity." 

3. A desire to know the worst of himself. "That 
I may know hoio frail I am" My mortality, the frail 
tenure of my existence: — my depravity, the depth of 
iniquity concealed within, and working my ruin: — my 
weakness, that I may be convinced of the folly of trust- 
ing in an arm of flesh, and my deep need of a Saviour 
in whom to trust, omnipotent and willing to save. 

But Scripture is best interpreted by Scripture ; and 
[would refer you to Psal. xc. 12. "So teach us to 
number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto 
wisdom !" — Wisdom, to guide us through the dreary 
paths of life : — wisdom, the word of truth profitable to 
direct : — wisdom, the Messiah, " the Lord our Righ- 
teousness ;" our Immanuel, our loving friend "made 
unto us wisdom" &c. For it is thus that in accordance 
with, and not in opposition to rejoicing in hope of the 
glory of God," every Christian may say, " Lord, make me 



YOUTH. 127 

to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it 
is ; that / may know how frail I am." 

II. Let me exemplify the practical excellence of the 
text, by noticing the experience and conduct of our de- 
parted friend. The practical excellence of the principles 
in the text was exemplified. 

1. By her cherishing a conviction that her end tuas 
near. She new the weakness of her frame ; she remem- 
bered that she was but dust. She felt the power of that 
word of God, and therefore believed in it — " Your life 
is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then 
vanisheth away." In the morning, we grow up as the 
grass, and appear flourishing, but in the evening, nay, 
before the mid-day of life, we are many of us cut down, 
and, like it, dried up and withered. It is not remarkable, 
therefore, that she should say on leaving town, with 
feelings better to be imagined than described, "I shall 
not again return ; I shall never see you more." She was 
not one of the many who make this earth the place of 
their joy, and desire no higher happiness ; but one of 
the thoughtful and devout few, who are not averse to 
the contemplation of death, nor unwilling to cherish the 
conviction that their end is near. 

2. By her anxiety to be prepared for a happy end. 
With her, religion was not a mere form : it was not at- 
tended to from the prevalence of custom, or as a means 
of gaining reputation, nor was it, in her estimation, of 
secondary import. She regarded it as the one thing 
needful," — as the first and " principal thing ;" and she 
entered into it with all her might, convinced that there 
was no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in 
the grave whither she was hastening. ' ' Private devotion 
she never neglected. In family and social prayer she 
readily and fervently joined. The House of God was 
the place of her joy. The Lokd's day she hailed with 



128 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

sacred delight, and listened to his word with prayerful 
attention." She desired to yield obedience to the 
Savioue's command, "Do this in remembrance of 
me ; " to approach his table in the spirit of a true dis- 
ciple. And t ) her, it was a holy feast, an antepast of 
heaven. 

3. By her firm reliance on the merits of the Eedeemer. 
She was convinced of her frailty, and felt deeply her need 
of the divine aid to lead her to the Savioue ; and her 
deep need also of the application of his merits — his blood 
to cleanse — his righteousness to justify. Happy for her, 
she "knew who she had believed, and was fully per- 
suaded that he was able to keep that she had committed 
to Him against the great day," and could wholly depend 
upon him. When, therefore, her medical attendant in- 
quired if she was building her hope of salvation on any 
righteousness of her own, she answered, "None but 
Cheist ! " 

When she perceived the attentions which her friends 
were so forward to pay her, the love of Cheist so sweetly 
constrained her, and enabled her to appreciate such work, 
that she said, "Even Job in all his affliction, had not 
attention such as this ! " And when they lamented her 
extreme sufferings, which they had no power to avert, 
she said, " Nothing to what my sins deserve." This was 
a striking 23i*oof of her humility. And then, forgetting 
all for Cheist she added, " Cheist is precious ! Cheist 
is precious ! " 

There was nothing of indifference, but a cleaving to 
Him by faith, who is mighty and able to save; an 
earnest supplication in reliance on his merits, and a joy 
in Him as superlatively precious ! Cheist was 

" Her theme, her inspiration, and her crown ; 
Her light in darkness, and -her life in death 1" 



YOUTH. 129 

4. By her resignation, willingness, and desire to 
depart. In making this statement, however, we do not 
mean to disguise that she was the subject of many fears, 
that the enemy of souls thrust sore at her, and that she 
had hours of darkness and heaviness during her painful 
affliction. On the contrary, we are happy to make 
them known, because from them we gain confidence that 
all is well. Had there been no conflicts, no exertion of 
the powers of darkness, there might have been no work 
of the Spirit ; but since there were the former, and she 
triumphed over them, we doubt not that her triumph 
was the effect of the latter, and we have reason to give 
glory to Him, who by his Spirit made her more than 
conqueror. As a proof of this, she said at one period, 
" My fears are all gone ; I have built my ho]3e on 
Christ, and can leave all to him." 

Patience and resignation shone conspicuously in all 
her words and in her whole deportment ; and these 
wrought so effectually to her peace and comfort of mind, 
that through a night of uncommon suffering, she had 
such sweet composure, that she was able to be much in 
prayer, and was often heard to say, "Heavenly Father, 
take me home /" 

Her pious medical friend said, "To depart and to be 
with Christ is far better." She answered, "That is 
what I want ; I long to be gone." 

"And her last words were, "Come, Lord Jesus, 
Lord Jesus !" 

And now, desiring above all things that divine grace 
may work effectually in all your hearts, and constrain you 
to follow her as she followed Christ, we exhort you, 

1. To adopt the sentiments of the text for practical 
and holy purposes. As individuals say— "Lord, make 
me to know mine end," &c. 
6* 



130 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

2. Not to cause a gloomy apprehension of death, but 
to inspire a cheerful hope that death will be gain. 

And in this expectation, and in the hope that we 
shall be for ever with the Lord, we exhort, we entreat, 
we enjoin yon to "comfort one another with these 
words." 

And, finally, we exhort you all to meditate on the 
work of Christ. This afforded comfort to our departed 
friend. His work as a Kedeemer, Mediator, and Inter- 
cessor — his power to deliver — his willingness to save, 
afforded her comfort, and peace, and assurance in death. 

Believe in him — trust in him — love him — serve him. 
Then, living, you will live unto the Lord, and dying, 
you shall be for ever his. 



PIETY IN HUMBLE LIFE. 

REV. A. E. LORD. 

IN THE CONGREGATIONAL CHAPEL, HERSHAM, NEAR ESHER, ENGLAND. 
ON THE DECEASE OP A YOUTHFUL MEMBER OF THE CHURCH. 

"Saving a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far 
better." — Phillippians i : 23. 

HPHESE words meet our notice, in the vicinity of one 
of the most beautiful passages in the apostolic 
writings. The circumstances in which the apostle was 
placed when he wrote them, were peculiar. He had 
been arrested in his seraphic course of service, by the 
strong arm of law, and had become in consequence an 
inmate of the prison-house at Eome. 

To many of the churches which he had planted, this 
providence seemed distressing and mysterious. They 
fainted at his tribulation. His faith, however, did not 
fail him, for he knew that whether he was destined for 



YOUTH. 131 

life or for death, "Christ would be magnified in him ;" 
"for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." He 
confesses that he felt himself under the pressure of two 
opposite principles. There was a desire to live, and yet 
a desire to depart, and which to choose he knew not : 
"lamina strait betwixt two." Life, in his estimation, 
was a valuable thing ; and, inasmuch as it presented 
opportunities to promote the glory of the Saviour in the 
redemption of man, it was to him exceedingly desir- 
able ; yet still, he could not resist the conviction, that 
"to depart was far better," because his departure would 
give him immediate introduction to the society of Christ, 
the supreme object of his heart's love. " I have a de- 
sire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better." 

I. The apostle's view of death first claims our attention. 
He calls it a "departure " In like manner he speaks of 
it in his letter to Timothy. "The time of my depar- 
ture is at hand." Thus also good old Simeon regarded 
it, when he said, "Lord, now lettest Thou thy servant 
depart in peace." 

The original word contains a nautical figure, and 
refers to a ship riding at anchor, the wind in the mean- 
time threatening to loose it from its moorings, and to 
drive it out to sea. The apostle desired to weigh 
anchor, to be unbound, and to set sail for the haven of 
eternal rest. 

And first, we may regard the apostle as referring to 
the departure of his spirit from the tody — " / have a 
desire to depart." In the previous verse he says, "/ 
live in the flesh." The distinction he makes, between 
himself and his body, is very remarkable, and conveys 
to our mind a sublime and beautiful truth. The "I" 
in which the apostle recognizes his real self, he does not 
confound with his flesh — " I live in the flesh." The 
soul is the gem, the body is the casket ; and though 



132 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

both are essential to humanity, yet they are distinct. 
Properly speaking, the mind is the man — the "I," the 
real self. To a thoughtful mind it is pleasing to observe 
how beautifully this great philosophical truth is 
recognized by the sacred writers. 

"In my flesh shall I see God." The patriarch does 
not confound the mortal with the immortal — the 
adjunct of humanity with its essence. " We" says the 
apostle Paul, "are in this tabernacle." To confound 
the body with our real self is much the same as if a man 
should confound a tent with the occupant, "/am in 
this tabernacle," says the apostle Peter. "My body is 
not myself, it is my residence — a residence not built of 
marble and founded on a rock, but a tent, which rock- 
ing in every breeze, is destined to come down at the fiat 
of Almighty God." 

Viewing then the soul in this close connection with 
the body, as " living in the flesh," the apostle regarded 
death as a "departure" of the soul from its residence — 
as a loosing of his spirit from the anchor in which mor- 
tality had held it for so many years. And who can 
wonder that a mind, ripened under the influences of the 
Holy Spirit, should be " willing to be absent from the 
body, that it may be present with the Lord ?" In these 
frail tabernacles how many sins have been committed — 
how man sorrows endured ! The "flesh" has contracted 
much defilement, and "the spirit" has wailed under 
many burdens. " We that are in this tabernacle do 
groan being burdened." How many times has the body 
been pressed under sickness ! How numerous have been 
its exposures to death, and how agonizing have been its 
pains ! What griefs have been experienced from burn- 
ing fevers, paralyzed limbs, inward tumors, dyspepsia, 
consumption, and a thousand other things ! What 
showers of tears have fallen from the eyes even of re- 



touts. 133 

deemed humanity ! The home of the body is far from a 
happy one ; and therefore we cannot wonder that when 
the soul has a prospect of "a mansion, eternal in the 
heavens/' it should cherish " the desire to depart." 

It is important, however to remark, that the aspira- 
tion is that of renewed humanity only. The mind un- 
changed has no desire to depart. Its requires His wis- 
dem, His power, and His grace, to bring tlie soul to this 
temper and to this frame. 

Secondly. We regard the apostle as referring to his 
departure from the present world. "I have a desire to 
depart." 

Viewed as the workmanship of God, this world un- 
questionably presented many attractions to the apostle's 
mind. His fine eye, and cultivated taste, would regard 
creation as a sublime poem ; and many a passage which 
portrayed the eternal power and Godhead, would be 
read by him with exquisite delight. It is admitted too 
that this world has many sublime reminiscences. It is 
a wonderful world ! Here Christ lived, labored, and 
died for the redemption of humanity. Here apostles 
fought the great battle of life, and made their way to 
the martyr's crown. Here too we received those impres- 
sions of the world to come which first drew our affec- 
tions from the things of earth. And, all these reminis- 
cences give a charm to the present world which may 
well make us willing to live. Yet still, a noble, 
spiritual mind will give the preference to departure. 

In this world the're are many drawbacks upon a 
Christian's happiness. Even in the physical world, it is 
not true, that "every prospect pleases." When nature 
blooms in paradisaic beauty, the poet's conception enlists 
our concurrence as to its accuracy. But there are times 
when mist and blight assail the scenery of earth — times 
when storms and tempests spread terrible devastation 



134 MEMORIAL TEIBtrTES. 

upon the prospects which have pleased our eye — times 
when darkness covers the earth and jeopardizes our 
safety. But heaven will be a perfect paradise. Not a 
vestige of the curse will remain. "And there shall be 
no night there." In that world every prospect pleases, 
and not even man is vile, for there humanity is trans- 
formed into the image of the Son of God. "The 
spirits of the just are made perfect." Comparing, then, 
the physical attractions of this world with those of 
heaven, we need not wonder that the Christian cherishes 
"a desire to depart." 

Our social circles too present many drawbacks to 
perfect bliss. Sorrows present themselves in a thousand 
forms. Afflictions crowd upon our path. Death enters 
our windows. Loved ones are prostrated by the blow of 
God's hand. Emaciated forms arouse our tenderest 
sympathies, and their cries pierce our hearts. But in 
heaven cries of agony will be unheard. Pain will have 
noplace: sorrow will be unknown — "and there shall 
be no more death." And who that has lost a friend in 
this world after much solicitude and auxious watching, 
does not anticipate that period when his heart will no 
more be pierced by the wail of sorrow ? when his eyes 
will no more witness the triumph of the "king of 
terrors ?" and when his feet will no more tread the 
graveyard, or stand beside the yawning tomb ? 

No captain would wish to remain at anchor upon the 
shores of a plague-smitten country, so the Christian 
need not wish unduly to prolong his stay in the midst 
of sorrow, affliction, and death. " Having a desire to 
depart." 

Our service, moreover, does not ensure unmingled 
delight in this world. It is a great blessedness to serve 
the Lord Christ in the battle of life. Our calling is a 
noble calling — " God hath called us unto glory." We 



YOUTH. 135 

become soldiers of Jesus Christ, that we may " fight the 
good fight of faith ;" that on the side of the Son of 
God we may war with the antagonistic forces of evil 
which prevail in the world. It is a noble service ! We 
love the Captain of our salvation. We love the cause we 
have espoused. We are conscious of its justice, of its 
excellence, and of its ultimate triumph: yet we are also 
conscious of much imperfection. Sin mars our works — 
weakens our hands, and retards our progress. Often do 
we cry with the apostle — " wretched one that I am, 
who shall deliver me !" " We cannot do the things 
that we would." We cannot serve our Lord as we ought. 
"Evil is present with us" even in doing good; and 
therefore while we may be willing to "abide in the 
flesh," if such be the will of God, we may, and ought to 
cherish the " desire to depart," to leave the scene of con- 
flict, and " enter into rest." 

II. The apostle's estimate of future bliss claims our 
attention. " To be with Christ." And here observe — 

First, the apostle did not regard departure as the 
annihilation of his humanity. The thought of annihi- 
lation would have smitten him through with terror. 
Philosophy and revelation alike forbid the wretched 
idea. What man would covet the annihilation of his 
existence except the guilty and depraved ? It is pos- 
sible to conceive of a mind reduced to wish such an 
ultimatum, but it must be a mind that has not a ray of 
hope sweeping across its horizon, that does not reflect 
upon eternity and its' realities — not a mind elevated to 
true virtue by the Gospel of Christ. Such a mind would 
shudder could it believe, ' When I depart I shall be no 
more.' Annihilation is the dream of infidelity in its 
lowest and basest form. 

Secondly) you observe the apostle did not regard de- 
parture as the extinguishing of his spirit till the morn 



186 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

of resurrection. Does not the language of the text 
imply, with all the force of certainty, that when the 
Christian departs he is at once with Christ ? Is not the 
transition immediate ? And is not the desire ex- 
pressed upon the assured conviction that departure 
would usher him into the presence of Christ and 
into personal communion with Him. Had the apostle 
the least idea of a suspension of his mental faculties 
while his body remained under the dominion of death ? 
On what ground, if this were the case, could he say, 
" To die is gain ?" Wherein would be the gain, to leave 
the joy of labor for Christ and sink into utter uncon- 
sciousness for centuries ? How could a departure under 
such circumstances be "far better" than living for 
Christ in the flesh ? Unless we admit the immediate 
blessedness of departed spirits, Paul's departure would 
have been not gain, but loss, gee at loss. The soul 
sleepeth not ; it is an ever living, wakeful entity. It 
needeth not sleep. It existeth even when absent from 
the body. " Absent from the body, it is present with 
the Lord." "Ye are come," says the apostle, "to the 
spirits of the just made perfect." Observe the lan- 
guage, "spirits" "made perfect;" but if spirits sleep, 
and are not made perfect till the body rise from the dust 
of death, with what propriety could the apostle say, We 
are come to them ? 

There will unquestionably be a perfection of humanity 
as a whole at the resurrection, but in the mean time the 
spirit is already perfect. 

Paul's desire, then, for departure was that he might 
"be with Christ." "The love of Christ constrained " 
his desire for an interview. He was well pleased to 
labor for Him on earth, but he preferred dwelling with 
Him in heaven. The life of faith was pleasant, but a 
sight of Christ would be " far better." 



YOUTB. 137 

TJiirdly, it is relevant to inquire, in what place Paul 
expected to meet the Saviour 9 

Wheke is the Redeemee ? The Scriptures dis- 
tinctly and repeatedly assure us that the "heavens have 
received Him till the restitution of all things" — that 
" He has entered heaven for us," and carries on His 
intercourse in that world in the pbesence of God. And 
if so, will it not follow that to be with Him is to he in 
heaven f " Where I am," says the Saviour, " there shall 
My servant he also ;" and when His Word tells me that 
" He is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of 
God," the conclusion is inevitable that His departed 
saints are there also. 

The apostle's desire, was to reach the perfection of 
his nature and the perfection of his bliss. And this he 
could reach only in the glorious presence of his Re- 
deemer. 

Love is strong and impels its possessor to seek the 
society of its object. There it reposes, for we "rest in 
our love." 

The apostle's hopes had for many years centered on 
"Jesus Christ and Him crucified;" and now he wished 
to be with Jesus Christ glorified — not as a spectator ol 
His glory only, but as a partaker. The bliss of heaven 
will fill both the eye and the heart. " Father, I will 
that they whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where 
I am, that they may behold My glory." We shall see 
Him as He is ; not in the unsubdued splendors of Deity, 
but with those splendors softened by a beautiful hu- 
manity — with the majesty of Godhead blended with the 
sympathy of a refined manhood. Thus the apostle 
longed to see Him and to be with Him ; and to achieve 
this he was desirous to depart, conscious that as soon as 
his spirit was unloosed from the trammels of the body, 



138 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

it would find a place among the spirits made perfect, 
and in that perfection enjoy Him for ever. 

When we think of all the bliss consequent upon de- 
parture, we can understand why the apostle should say, 
"To die is gain," and to "depart is far better." It is 
far better, because he who thus leaves this world be- 
comes free from every sin, every perplexity and every 
doubt ; free from every temptation and sorrow — from 
every kind of evil, physicial and moral. And seeing it 
is so, why should a Christian be afraid to depart ? Let 
no Christian clothe death with needless terror, but let 
him learn his privilege to regard it as a "sleep in Jesus," 
as an exodus, as a weighing anchor, as a "departure to 
be with Christ." 

Death has its bright side as well as its dark one. It 
may deface mortal beauty, wither human strength, 
tarnish human glory, and terrify the guilty — but it is no 
enemy to the Christian. It can deface no moral beauty, 
wither no spiritual strength, despoil of no true wealth, 
disturb no true repose. Why then should a Christian 
be afraid to die ? Why should he fear to depart to his 
home ? Why should he tremble to hear his Lord turn 
the key which opens the door of a perfect and of an 
endless life ? Why should he dread to walk down into 
the valley ? Is there a shadow there ? and is there not 
light ? Without light shadows cannot exist. Is there a 
shadow there ? and is it not the shadow of the opposite 
Mount — Mount Zion — up which the spirit will travel as 
soon as it is emancipated ? Fear not, then, Christian, 
to cherish the "desire to depart and to be with Christ." 
It is far better than your present mode of existence, and 
your present enjoyments. 

Here you "groan being burdened!" Here you are 
oppressed with imperfections in yourselves, in the world, 
and in the church. "Far better!" There is no com- 



TOVTH. 130 

parison between calm and rest, between conflict and 
peace, between chains and freedom, between night and 
day. 

This sublime aspiration of the apostle — this temper 
and posture of the soul, becomes every Christian. If 
we have been "renewed in the spirit of our minds " — if 
"Christ has been formed within us the hope of glory" 
— then we shall covet the perfection to which we are 
destined, and of which we are capable. The creature in 
every department of creation tends to perfection. Every- 
thing seeks to develope itself and struggles with every 
difficulty that opposes its advancement ; and surely " the 
new creature " cannot but aspire to glory, and honor, 
and perfection, in the presence of Christ. 

This subject, thus brought before us, teaches us that 
the great design of the Gospel is to produce in all who 
receive it a willingness and readiness to die. To un- 
renewed humanity death is the king of terrors. Apart 
from the cross of Christ, he must ever appear as an 
enemy to the reflective mind. I am not unaware that 
many who disbelieve the Gospel have counted death as 
the friend of man, and some have invited his approach 
before the time by the poisoned cup or by the polished 
steel. But in every case of this kind the victims had 
become weary of life. Calamities and crosses, pains and 
sorrows had so pressed upon them, that life became irk- 
some, and with cowardice they ran away from life's ills, 
unable to bear the discipline of earthly care. 

In the apostle's case nothing of this kind induced the 
"desire to depart." He was not disgusted with life ; he 
did not wish to be unclothed ; he did not wish to die to 
get rid of trouble ; he did not wish to die because he 
hated the world. He had a higher motive. It was that 
he might "be with Christ." We do not say, that he 
was insensible to the evils incident to the present state, 



140 Memorial tributes, 

or that he was enamoured, of earth's sorrows. By no 
means. But the grand motive of his aspirations was to 
be with Christ. Love panted to reach its Parent, and to 
look Him in the face for ever. And this is the true test 
of Christian principle. If the desire to die arise from 
disgust with earthly sorrows, earthly associates, or earth- 
ly things, depend upon it the mind is not fit for the de- 
parture. It is like an instrument in an untuned con- 
dition, and would by no means add to the harmony of 
the heavenly world. The true proof of meetness is love 
to the person of Christ, and a desire to have His wel- 
come, His society, and His smile. 

What, then, are the desires of your minds ? Are you 
of the same temper as the apostle ? — willing to live, if 
you may live to Christ, but desirous "to depart, and to 
be with Christ," when He shall intimate His will ? De- 
spise not your life : it is a noble endowment, and is given 
for a noble purpose. Squander it not away, but live to 
Christ, to promote in every possible way the welfare of 
humanity. If you live for Christ, you will live for man 
— you cannot do otherwise. " The love of Christ con- 
strains" to a sublime philanthropy. It aims to crush 
selfishness : it finds the neighbor whom to love in uni- 
versal man. This is true Christianity, and anything 
short of it is a caricature, a counterfeit thing. In using 
life thus nobly, let the balance of your desires ever be in 
favor of departure ; so that, when the last hour of life 
shall come, death may not be like tearing up a tree by 
its roots, but like the loosing of a ship from its anchor, 
to ride gallantly into the port of glory and into the 
haven of eternal rest. 

It gives me pleasure to say that the departed com- 
mended herself to the esteem of all who knew her as a 
modest and retiring Christian. As a servant she was 
faithful and honest in every trust. For eight years she 



YOUTH. 141 

was under our roof, and time only enhanced the esteem 
in which she was held. We have sorrowed for her loss, 
but not as those without hope. We are thankful that 
we have not been obliged to leave her to the tender 
mercies of an unsympathizing world. Her desire was 
to be with Christ, and that desire we fondly hope is fully 
and for ever realized. Her death speaks to every fellow- 
member of this church, and it urges all to " work while 
it is called to-day, for the night cometh when no man 
can work." With us she will commune no more ; with 
ns on earth she will worship no more. But let us anti- 
cipate the time of re-union at the banquet of love in 
heaven. Let our anxiety be to live to Christ, cherishing 
at the same time a "desire to depart and to be with 
Christ, which is far better." 

Finally, her death speaks to the yopkg. 

What an impressive lesson doss it read upon the 
vanity of human life ! Here was a young woman called 
to bear the yoke of affliction in her youth, and to die in 
her twenty-fourth year. "Her sun went down while it 
was yet noon." And how know you that your end is 
not near ? Oh ! "set not your affections on things on 
the earth ;" follow not the vanities, and fashions, and 
pleasures of this world. Let your life be consecrated to 
Christ from henceforth, and remember that the departed 
has assured you that you will never regret it. Eegret 
it ! No ! The soul that is joined to its Saviour, can 
never regret its union, for by that union it rises to the 
elevation of salvation ancl of heaven for ever. 

Some of you knew and esteemed the departed. 
come and join yourselves to the Lord and Saviour. For 
this she prayed, and let none despise the prayer of a 
humble disciple. I cannot but hope, that as her own 
serious impressions were ripened into decision for Christ 
under a funeral sermon, sq some of you may from this 



142 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

time be led to seek the Lord, and give yourselves to 
Him. " Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God 
for you all is, that you may be saved." 



THE DYING CHRISTIAN. 

KEV. R. GIBSON", ENGLAND. 

ON THE DEATH OF MR. J. C. H. , AGED 32. 

"For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is 
at hand. 1 have fought a good fight, 1 have finished my course, I 
have kept tlie faith : henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of 
righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
that day : and not to me only, but unto all them also that love Ris 
appearing." — 2 Timothy iv: 6-8. 

r PHE solemn event which we are assembled this even- 
ing to improve, though truly mournful and pain- 
fully distressing, and even overwhelming to the minds 
of some, is in itself mingled with the blooming hope of 
immortality and eternal life. We cannot, however, but 
regard it amongst the dark, mysterious, impenetrable 
dispensations of an infinitely wise and kind Providence. 
When we see the aged sinner with his hoary head, ema- 
ciated frame, and broken down constitution, whose life 
has been one of distinguished transgression, spared year 
after year in his rebellion, and on his right hand and on 
his left the young, the healthful, the virtuous, the good, 
are swept away by the relentless hand of mortalit} 7 , and 
those hopes that have swelled the bosoms of pious par- 
ents, that have promised to revive the church and to 
bless the world, have been blighted and withered in the 
bud ; when we see this, are w r e not disposed to exclaim, 
"How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways 
past finding out !" Thus it has been in the present in- 
stance ? and thus it has been in a thousand others ; but 



YOUTH. 143 

be it ours to "stand still and know that He is God," 
and that "He doeth all things well," "though His way- 
is in the sea, His path in the great waters, and His foot- 
steps are not known. Clouds and darkness are round 
about Him, justice and judgment are the habitation of 
His throne." In the midst of such perplexing scenes, 
resignation to the will of God is most desirable, and per- 
haps the highest and noblest attainment to which the 
Christian can arrive, on this side the grave. It is said 
of one, that while yet wave after wave brake with greater 
violence on his devoted head, "in all this he sinned not, 
nor charged God foolishly." " I was dumb," said the 
psalmist, "because Thou didst it;" and another calmly 
replied, "It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him 
good." Oh ! for something of that meek submission, 
which characterized the blessed Eedeemer, when ap- 
proaching the bitterest agonies that could wring His sin- 
less heart ; " Nevertheless not My will, but Thine be 
done." 

St. Paul was at this time a prisoner in Rome, for the 
truth, he had so much loved, and so faithfully pro- 
claimed. He was hourly anticipating a martyr's death, 
for the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. While thus 
standing on the verge of both worlds, in calmly review- 
ing the past, he says, "I am now ready to be offered, 
and the time of my departure is at hand ; I have fought 
a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the 
faith." Then casting his reflections forward into 
futurity, more sublime and enrapturing visions broke on 
his triumphant spirit. 

This too was something of the experience of our de- 
parted friend. In reviewing the past, he could rejoice ; 
and, in the anticipation of the future, he could triumph. 
This is not the gloomy language of skepticism, but of a 
martyr and a Christian, awaiting his dimissal from a 



144 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

world of sorrow, to the realms of endless bliss. This 
dispels the gloom from the grave ; this cheers and il- 
lumines the pathway to the tomb ; this wipes away the 
bitter tear of the anxious mourner, that lingers behind ; 
this bereaves the last enemy of his sting ; this sustains 
the soul amid "the wreck of nature/' and opens to the 
departing spirit a survey of the cloudless mansions of 
joy, to which it is about to take its everlasting flight. 
And no wonder if amid such scenes he should long for 
"the wings of a dove, to fly away and be at rest." 

We shall make some brief remarks on each sentiment 
of this interesting passage. 

May the Lord command His abundant blessings ; may 
He fill this place with His glory ; and may he bind up 
every wound, and comfort every sorrowful spirit, for His 
name's sake ! 

" I am now ready to be offered." This is the sweet 
experience of the man of God. There are in his mind 
no fearful forebodings, no anxious pangs, no tremulous 
apprehensions, rising to wrap the soul in the mists of 
obscurity, while thus treading the margin of the grave. 
How many express an ardent desire for that world of 
peace and rest awaiting the believer, but how seldom do 
they properly consider the essential, the indispensable 
preparation for such a state ! If there be one thing in 
the universe of God more pleasing to the mind than all 
others, it is to see the Christian completely prepared for 
heaven. There he stands, when life wears to a close, and 
the twilight shadows of the evening are flinging them- 
selves around him, with his lamp trimmed, and being 
brilliantly wrapped in a robe without a stain, waiting 
only for the fiery chariot and the convoy of angels, to 
conduct his happy spirit to Abraham's bosom. 

"We cannot be surprised at the ancient Christians 
<( not accepting deliverance." Like this noble champion 



YOUTH. 145 

for the truth, their labors were ended, the wilderness 
traversed, the journey of life at a close, upon the bor- 
ders of the promised land, waiting to enter in. And 
while the gates are thus opening and the soul rising to 
God and to heaven, to mingle with its kindred spirits, 
and as the discordant sounds of earth die away on the 
ear, the meltiug strains of heavenly music break upon it; 
and as the eye becomes dim to all earthly scenes, and as 
they fade away, it opens upon the celestial visions of 
eternal day. What can be more distressing, than at such 
a crisis to be thrown back upon the bleak shores of an 
unfriendly world ! 

Our beloved friend, when once nearly gone, but re- 
covering again from a most painful attack, said, "all 
this is a disappointment." But it was only for a little ; 
angels were preparing his crown, and hastening to meet 
him ; yet a little, and he soared away to join in the song, 
"Unto Him that hath loved us, and washed us from 
our sins in His own blood, be glory for ever." 

My brethren, are you ready to pass to that dying 
chamber, or at once to that "rest that remaineth for the 
people of God ?" Is you lamp trimmed and burning ? 
Have you on "the wedding garment," or is it the tat- 
tered robe of your own self -righteousness, you stand in 
to-night ? 

" The time of my departure is at hand." Few lessons 
in the pages of Divine revelation are taught with greater 
emphasis, or more solemnity, than the brevity of human 
life. "All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof 
is like the flower of the field ; the grass withereth, the 
flower fadeth ;" plucked by the ruthless hand, it fades 
in an hour, dies in a day. If, then, his days are few and 
full of trouble ; if only like a span, a vapor, or a rapid 
stream, that passes ; if like that arrow, he be passing 
over the narrow sea of life, into the fathomless depths of 
7 



146 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

eternity ; if "in the midst of life we are in death ;" if 
that eye that sparkles with life, may be closed in death 
in one hour ; if that countenance, glowing with youth 
healthf ulness, may be pale in death this night ; if the 
throbbing of each breast may be the last, if the beating 
of each pulse may terminate your short career, if the 
next breath may be the last for ever — how it becomes 
you to apply this sentiment to your conscience, "the 
time of my departure is at hand !" This is not a thing 
that may or may not be ; it is now ; even now, at hand ; 
all the harbingers of mortality have entered your bosom, 
and the work of destruction is already begun. Oh ! that 
the Spirit of God might write this fact on all your 
hearts, "the time of my departure is at hand !" 

But blessed departure, and no matter how near, 
when cheered by the sunshine of God's presence. Then 
it will only be "the valley of the shadow of death:" 
the shadow of the serpent will not sting, the shadow of 
the sword will not injure ; the rod will defend, and the 
staff of His promises will sustain, and no evil shall be 
feared, because God is there. 

But what a scene must this departure be, when un- 
cheered by a ray of Gospel hope ! — a night, alas ! full of 
darkness, despair, and horror — a night destined to ter- 
minate in the "blackness of darkness" for ever. If 
there be anything that should awaken in the heart the 
most pungent grief, it is the thought of such an end as 
this. 

But the Christian's is not so. His is one of a very 
different character : from a prison to a palace ; from the 
dreary wilderness to a cloudless paradise, blooming with 
all the fruits of immortal bliss Oh ! happy departure 
from that bed of suffering and of anguish, to be 
pillowed on the bosom of the Eedeemer; from those 
heart-rending sighs, to mingle with the melodies of 



YOUTH. 147 

heaven! Oh! "let me die the death of the righ- 
teous, and let my last end belike his !" 

" I have fought a good fight." Some have thought, 
could they once but realize a changed heart, all the 
work would then be finished ; but how vastly different 
the lesson acquired since that period ! You know full 
well now, that instead of being completed, it was only 
commencing ; that, now, every untrodden step in the 
Divine life is disputed by the adversary of your soul. 
Indeed, they know but little of Christian experience, 
who know not that it is one incessant, one continual 
warfare. Till the close of life, enemies innumerable, 
difficulties untold, beset his path, meet and assail him 
at every turning. The world, with its menacing frowns, 
or its alluring, deceptive fascination. How many its 
illusive dreams of pleasure, riches, honors, or bliss ! 
But, alas, its glories wither in an hour, and the paradise 
becomes a wilderness — its promises betray, its hopes 
deceive; and in pursuit of the phantom, the soul has 
been perilled, if not lost. Nothing short of a "faith 
that overcomes the world," will suffice. 

And even when the world is vanquished, the conflict 
has not subsided ; there is an ever wakeful, ever restless 
adversary, "seeking whom he may devour/' There is 
too, the uprising of a host of foes within ; nor are these 
the weakest, or the least to be feared. How much re- 
mains yet to be done ! how many the enemies to bo 
ejected from the soul ! The surface that appeared 
placid and clear, is troubled ; the waters are foule'd, and 
the impurity of the fountain is evident ; and we have 
to learn, that there must be much yet of the crucifying 
of the flesh, and of the mortifying of the deeds of the 
body. 

And immediately combined with these, is the "last 
enemy," even " death." But, thank God, that which 



148 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

would have stung to the bosom's core, with more than 
scorpion's sting, is hailed as an angel of light, emptying 
the cup of death of all its poisoned, malignant elements, 
and filling it with the water of the fountain of life. 
"0 death ! where is thy sting ? grave ! where is thy 
victory ?" " Thanks be to God, who giveth us the 
victory, through the Lord Jesus Christ." i ' death ! I 
will be thy plagues ; grave ! I will be thy destruc- 
tion." He will " swallow up death in victory;" He 
will "wipe away tears from off all faces ;" for the mouth 
of the Lord hath spoken it. 

But the apostle has designated this "a good fight ;" 
and this it is in effect. Here faith may be seen rising 
and soaring away beyond the regions of doubtful un- 
belief, mercy rejoicing over justice, holiness triumphing 
over sin ; the darkness of error dispelled by the light of 
truth. Unlike all other conflicts, no sound of the war- 
whoop, no nourishing of trumpets, clashing of arms, or 
din of war, no "garments dyed in blood ;" no dying 
groans break upon the ear, no bleeding wounds open to 
the eye ; no widow's wail is heard above the dead, the 
tear-drop bedews no orphan's cheek. It is the peaceful 
triumph of virtue over vice ; love over enmity ; benevo- 
lence over avarice ; life over death ; heaven over hell. 
It is the soul towering away above all that is earthly, 
" fighting the good fight of faith, and laying hold on 
eternal life." 

" I have finished my course." This the apostle had 
finished indeed with unutterable joy ; every period of it 
had been lit up with a halo of unrivaled glory. His 
had been a martyr's course, a martyr's work : ay, and 
a martyr's crown glittered in the dim distance. What 
is the course of the hero of unnumbered battles, when 
put in contrast with the glorious achievements of the 
Christian man ? The one comes to destroy men's lives, 



YOUTH. 149 

the other to save them ; the one diffuses blessing all 
around, the other deals out destruction ; the one goes 
down to his grave amid the maledictions of the lonely 
and the destitute, whilst yet his horizon is overcast with 
infamy ; the other goes down without a cloud to dim the 
glory, and his sun rises with yet more glowing splendor, 
amid the assemblies of the just, to go down no more. 

The course of imagined pleasure, how short, how un- 
satisfactory, and how bitter ! This course will soon ter- 
minate; but shall it end like an unhappy Altamont's ? 
When the clock struck, he exclaimed with vehemence, 
Ci O time, time ! it is fit thou shouldest thus strike thy 
murderer to the heart. How art thou fled for ever ! 
My principles have poisoned my friend, my extravagance 
lias beggared my boy, my unkindness has murdered my 
wife. iVnd is there another hell ? Thou blasphemed, 
yet most indulgent Lord God, hell itself would be a re- 
fuge, if it hide me from Thy frown." 

Contrast for one moment the Christian's closing 
hours with this. " I know that my Eedeemer liveth." 
" Whom have I in heaven but Thee ? and there is none 
on earth, that I desire besides Thee ; my heart and my 
flesh faileth, but the Lord is the strength of my heart 
and my portion for ever." " I have fought a good fight, 
I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of glory, which the 
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." 
"Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for 
mine eyes have seen Thy salvation." Thus, amid the 
joy of triumph and shouts of victory, he finishes his 
course, whilst the angelic hosts welcome him to the 
shores of immortality and eternal life, with the thrilling 
music of heaven. 

" I have kept the faith." This doubtless refers to 
the glorious doctrines of the Gospel of Christ, the uni- 



150 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

versal character of man's fall, justification, sanctification, 
holiness, the general resurrection, the final glory that 
should be awarded for the righteous, and the fearful 
destination awaiting the ungodly. But he dwelt em- 
phatically on the atonement of Christ. All the pathos, 
all the eloquence, all the zeal, all the fervor, of which 
he was possessed, was reserved and expended alone upon 
the glories of the cross ; of that he would never be 
ashamed ; in nothing would he glory save the cross ; 
living and dying, it was his choicest, his only theme. 

But connected with this was the principle of " faith ; 
which purifies the heart, and works by love." This is 
the life of God in the soul ; and this is the life of the 
soul. It is to the soul what the animal life is to the 
bod} 7 . It is not merely a cold, heartless, tacit confes- 
sion ; ic is a living principle, developing itself in " what- 
soever things are lovely and of good report." It is the 
keen eagle eye, that ever gazes on the Almighty, and 
never loses sight of Him ; it is the pinion, that through 
mountains of difficulties, wings its flight to the throne ; 
and this the hand with which he lays hold on eternal 
life. Keep it as you would your property, your friend, 
your life ; keep it, and it will keep you ; tremble, lest 
you should ever make shipwreck of it ; lest you should, 
having begun in the spirit, end in the flesh ; contend for 
it, maintain it, strive for it, till "faith is swallowed up 
in sight," and prayer in endless praise. 

Secondly. We notice briefly the pleasing prospect 
of the future, that opened to the mind of the apostle. 

" Crown of righteousness." This was no idle reverie, 
no wild enthusiasm, no imaginary wandering of a 
diseased mind. He could see the diadem of glory glit- 
tering through the clouds; a crown purchased by a righte- 
ous Redeemer given freely. The course was finished, 
the battle was fought, the victory was won, and now the 



YOUTH. 151 

wreath, the laurel, and the green palm of glory is his ; 
now it is his to tread the streets of the New Jerusalem, 

"And not a wave of trouble rolls 
Across his peaceful breast." 

This is not only " a crown of righteousness," but 
a " a crown of life," — a life of the most exquisite feli- 
city, a life of the most unutterable pleasure : a soul 
drinking copiously of the fountain of life, sitting 
beneath the shadow of the tree of life, plucking of its 
immortal fruits, where " there is fullness of joy, and 
pleasures for evermore." Life, where there is no death 
— life, where the anxious pangshall never heave the breast, 
where the briny tear shall never bedew the cheek, but 
shall live for ever " before the throne of God and of the 
Lamb, and serve Him day and night in His temple ; and 
Ee that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them ; 
and they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more, 
neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat ; for 
the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed 
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of 
waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes." 

But, again, this crown shall be " a crown of glory" 
— bright with glory, all glory, unmixed glory, without a 
stain, without a tarnish. The stars of heaven shall fade 
away before it, and the sun shall be enveloped in gloom, 
when it appears. It is such glory as mortal eye has 
never gazed on ; such glory as the human eye can never 
conceive of_; such glory as the ear of man has never heard 
of. It is an exceeding weight of glory. Then, my 
brethren, 

11 Press forward, press forward, the prize is in view ; 
That crown of bright glory is waiting for you." 

Unlike all human glory, and unlike all other crowns, 



152 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

this is " a crown that fadeth not away." Crowns and 
captors and princes meet and mingle in the dust ; all 
earthly glory is destined to pass, like a sunbeam in a 
wintry day ; the worm is at the gourd, the moth is at 
the garment, the canker is gathering on the diadem ; 
the glory of every clime and country shall die away ; the 
waves of oblivion shall roll over it, and it shall fade as 
a leaf ; the earth, too, like an atom in the sunbeam, 
shall glide away ; but the Christian's crown of glory 
shall never fade ; nor shall the lapse of years, nor the 
rolling ages of eternity, dim the brightness of its luster. 

"The Lord the righteous Judge shall give it me." 
Who can fail to admire the freeness of the gift, the un- 
merited character of the gift — the gift of love, the gift 
of mercy, the gift of God ? "At that day :" whether 
he was looking through the vista of ages to the hour of 
righteous retribution, or to the moment of his dismissal 
from this vale of tears, is of no vital moment ; this we 
do know, the crown was sure, and "to die was gain." 

"And not to me only." Not for the few, but the 
multitude, "a multitude which no man could number," 
men of every nation, and country, and clime and color. 
There is a crown for every overcoming Christian, that 
loves, that longs, that waits for His appearing. And 
what an appearing it will be ! Not as a Babe in 
Bethlehem, not as "a Man of sorrows and acquainted 
with griof," but amid the overwhelming and august 
splendors of the judgment morning, attended with 
unnumbered myriads of the angelic hosts, to crown His 
people with glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life, 
and "to take vengeance on them that know not God, 
and that have not obeyed His Gospel." 

It appears that our friend's first religious impressions 
were awakened under the ministry of the Kev. T. 
Binney, from that text, "Behold, how He loved him." 



YOUTH. 153 

From that period, he continued to attend the preaching 
of the Word ; became a decided character ; gave him- 
self to God, and then to the church. His was a decision 
of the right character ; never did he once swerve after- 
wards from the path of rectitude ; his motto was " On- 
ward to the goal." 

Of his usefulness, his benevolence, devotedness, 
activity, and zeal, I feel myself inadequate to speak. 
Four months' painful affliction he endured with the 
most devout and exemplary patience. When he found 
the hand of death was evidently upon him, he called 
each member of the family around his bed, and bid them 
a most affectionate farewell. And that farewell echoes 
in my ear yet ; for I too heard it. He then charged 
them all to meet him in heaven. How that injunction 
thrilled through each soul ! Solemn would it have been 
at any time, but now it was raised to an overwhelming 
climax. It falls on my ear, with an unspeakable dis- 
tinctness, as I walk along the streets — "Meet me in 
heaven." The dying pillow, from whence it came ; the 
pathos with which it fell from his lips ; and the fact of 
its being almost the last breath, brings it home to the 
soul with deathless sensibility. Then he called for that 
sweet hymn — 

" When I tread the verge of Jordan, 
Bid my anxious fears subside." 

"'Yes," said he, "He is my shield, He is my deliverer. n 
Being asked if he had any wish to be gratified, he 

replied, "I die in peace with all men." 

He dwelt much on that delightful hymn before he 

quite finished his course— 

li Jesus, Lover of my soul, 
Let me to thy bosom fly ;" 
7* 



154 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

He calmly fell asleep in Jesus, in the thirty-second 
year of his age ; and while his friends were mourning 
below, he was rejoicing before the throne. 

It but remains for me to urge all here to follow in 
his footsteps. That eye that has wept for you, will weep 
no more ; that tongue that was eloquent in prayer, is 
silent in the tomb ; that heart which glowed with such 
holy emotion for your salvation, is cold in death ; it will 
beat no more for you. What then, beloved ? — Arise, 
and weep for yourselves ; arise, and pray for yourselves ; 
arise, and address yourselves to the journey. It is not 
long ; the sunbeams are waning, the day is all but gone ; 
the night shades are falling thick and fast around you. 
Arise, and "seek the Lord while He may be found, and 
call upon Him while He is near." It may be the last 
time the voice of mercy shall break upon your ear ; the 
last time He shall woo you to the wounds of a bleeding 
Jesus ; the last time the Spirit shall strive ; the last 
moment God may wait your cry. Come, come now. 
God help you all to come ! Amen. 



THE FUNERAL AT THE GATE OF NAIN. 

REV. W. D. HORWOOD. 

st. james's chapel, pontypool. 

"BeJwld, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, 

and she was a widow." — Luke vii: 12. 

^HE city of Nam, whither our Lord was journeying, 
and at the gate of which this great miracle was 
wrought, is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture. It 
lay upon the southern border of Galilee, in the neighbor- 
hood of Endor, about two miles south from Mount Tabor, 
and at the foot of Mount Hermon. At present it is but 



YOUTH. 155 

a poor and deserted village, consisting only of a few 
houses, yet from the ruins scattered round, it must have 
been formerly of considerable extent, though now no 
monument of antiquity is to be found there. That oui 
Lord should meet the funeral at the gate ef the city, may 
be considered nothing more than a natural circumstance, 
to be explained by the fact that the Jews did not suffei 
the interring of the dead in towns, but had their burial 
places without the walls. Probably there was very much 
in the circumstances of the sad procession, to e.ioite a 
feeling of sympathy and pity even among those who were 
not generally touched with a lively feeling for human 
sorrows ; and it was this, no doubt, which had brought 
" much people" together to accompany the bier. Indeed, 
it would be hard to make the picture of desolat, on more 
complete, than that described by the evangelist- -" There 
was a dead man carried out the only son of his mother, 
and she was a ividoiv." And such was the bitterness of 
the mourning for an only son, that it had passed into a 
proverb: thus, in Jeremiah, 6: 26, "Make thee mourn- 
ing as for an only son, most bitter lamentation ;" and in 
Zachariah, 12: 10, "They shall mourn for him as one 
mourneth for his only son ;" and again, Amos 8: 10, "I 
will make it as the mourning of an only son." 

I. In treating upon our subject, the first thing that 
arrests our attention is a dead body, a corpse, being car- 
ried in its shroud, not in, a closed-up coffin, upon the 
shoulders of men to its grave. This now, as then, as 
respects the corpse, is no unusual circumstance. As the 
body is passing us we look, it may be, vacantly upon the 
procession ; it is no strange sight to us. We turn aside 
from it, as a matter of course, to our daily avocations. 
And if we are led to think about the matter at all, our 
thoughts pass from ourselves to the deceased. We 
ascribe the death of such to natural causes. We say, so 



156 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

and so died of an internal complaint, of old age, of a 
fever, of consumption, or of some other disorder ; and 
then Ave move along as though the destroyer was far 
away from ourselves. It may be we go a little further 
into the subject, especially when the loved and the dear 
are taken away from our own hearts and homes, and 
pause a moment in our career of pleasure and traffic, to 
wonder at the stroke, to bend in sorrow beneath it, and 
to ask the question, the individual question, 'What 
would be my fate, my destiny hereafter, if I should soon 
die too ?' But this is only a momentary pause ; a rapid- 
ly passing wonder ; a slight and shallow impression. 
Things, we say, must and will take their own natural 
courses. We cannot alter them, why then should they 
trouble us ? " Let us eat and drink," say some. ' Soul, 
thou hast laid up much store for the future ; take thine 
ease,' says another. And thus, amid our engagements 
and procrastinations, worldly hopes and expectations, 
passions and tendencies of heart, death tolls out its sum- 
mons from the church-tower and the grave opens and 
closes upon its victim. 

1. Bat is there nothing more connected with the 
death of the bod}', than its mere passing away into the 
dust — than the blank it makes in our hearts and homes? 
'Why was the young man, in the text, snatched from his 
mother ? Why is this dark visitant of man allowed to 
cast his shadow upon our hearths, to fill our souls witli 
mourning, and to crowd our cemeteries with monuments 
of woe ? Why ? To teach us the dreadful nature of sin ! 
Sin, in its first entrance into our common parents — in its 
transmission from generation to generation— in its ac- 
tual commission. And, we ask you, must there not be 
something very awful and dreadful in the nature of sin 
itself, when its "wages is death" — death physical, death 
spiritual ; death as it stops and freezes up the current of 



YOUTH. 157 

our blood, and death as it hardens the heart and banishes 
the soul from God, from Christ, from heaven ! Regard 
it, not simply in its different aspects, neither only in its 
miserable results, nor merely in its final destiny, but as 
apri?iciple waging war against the majesty and holiness 
of Deity, and against our best interests, our noblest and 
highest faculties, our peace and happiness on earth, and 
our hopes of glory in the world to come. It is God's 
bitterest enemy. It is man's curse and destroyer. We 
are too apt to pass it over with indifference. "We give to 
sin a narrow and a temporal limitation, both as to its 
character and its consequences. We have so many ex- 
cuses for it, so many apologies. We say it does no harm, 
if we deem it simple and natural. We think God is too 
merciful to punish us for little negligences or trifling 
acts of disobedience ; we think that a lie or an oath may 
pass our lips unheeded, unheard, and be forgotten. We 
think a violated Sabbath, or an unread Bible, or an un- 
occupied pew in the time of Divine service, is of no con- 
sequence — a matter easily to be overlooked and forgiven. 
We draw our distinctions between omissions of good and 
commissions of evil ; and we readily, most readily, come 
to any plausible conclusions, which suit our own notions 
about what is right and about what is wrong, irrespec- 
tively of the Scriptures. But think of sin as it is in the 
sight of God : a principle of disobedience, showing itself 
in a firm habitual forgetfulness of God. And in order 
that you may form a right conception of His anger 
against it, look upon the corpse — the corpse of the young 
— in its passage to corruption ; and as your eye rests up- 
on the bleeding heart behind the bier, let your imagina- 
tion carry you further into Hades, where God's anger 
follows sin still in the bitter outcry of a Dives, and in 
the fire which is never extinguished, and in the worm 
which never dies. 



158 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

2. It is said, the "dead man was carried out." How 
humiliating to our human nature ! What a mockery at 
pride ! What a blow to the proud vauntings of ambi- 
tion ! What a lesson on the folly of pampering that 
which ere long will be the food of worms ! Carried out! 
a mass of clay, yielding to the inroads of a loathsome 
rottenness — helpless, without strength, without life ! A 
young man too ; an only son. The vigor of his days are 
cut off. His eye no longer looks upon the fond and 
weeping mother dear, bending over him, — no longer up- 
on the beautiful things of earth, nor upon the shining 
stars, and sun, and moon. His ear also is deaf to the 
voice of affection, to the sound of music or the roar of 
thunder. All is still and dumb now upon that death- 
couch of his. Carried out ! as you and I shall be when 
our time comes. But the soul, was that carried out too? 
We have no authority for saying it was in the body ; for 
if that had been the case it would not have been dead. 
When the body dies the soul quits its tabernacle ; it 
passes into its eternity ; it lives on when the house that 
sheltered it is crumbled into ashes. The soul, then, is 
invaluable. What will a man give in exchange for it ? 
How ought we to watch over it — to pray to God our 
Saviour for its pardon, its deliverance, its sanctification, 
and for its everlasting safety and glorification ! It must 
be admitted, that no sacrifice is too dear, nor any effort is 
too strong, for the reward to be carried by angels into 
Abraham's bosom, and for the avoidance of the punish- 
ment to be carried by fiends into the terrors of the lost. 

II. This young man, we are told, had a mother, and 
that mother was a ividow. She had followed one beloved 
to his tomb, and she was now following another. The 
bonds of her heart had loosened their hold upon one 
dear object, but in their loosening they clung to her child. 
While he lived, there was still a link between her and 



YOUTH. 159 

her home ; but when this link was broken her home and 
her spirit were made desolate. Who does not feel for 
this widow and childless mother ? 

But all this affliction was sent to her in mercy, to 
teach her, and us also, the uncertain hold we all have of 
earthly comforts. These comforts may fix themselves so 
deeply, so fixedly, and so endearingly within our hearts, 
as to become idols there. They may be ever imaged in 
our memories, entwined about our brightest hopes, 
centered in our warmest affections, swallowing up the 
greatest portion of our thoughts, united to our most 
anxious cares, and forming the mightiest motive of our 
daily exertions. God is jealous of these idols ; and He 
sweeps them down. He wrings from the soul of one, 
" Absalom, my son, my son !" and from another, 

"Let the day perish wherein I was born For the 

thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that 
which I was afraid of is come unto me" — (Job iii : 3, 
25). He takes the infant from the mother's bosom, in 
order that her spirit may travel after it to the realms of 
angels ; He smites the gourd which has promised to 
flourish and to shelter, that we may set our affections 
upon things heavenly, and not upon things earthly. 

Happy shall we be, my brethren, if the end of the 
affliction is answered in our own salvation ; if the aching 
and bleeding heart turns to its Kedeemer, and leans and 
builds upon Him as the Kock of Ages, the unchangeable 
and everlasting foundation of all those who trust in His 
mercy, and who give the whole of their hearts to God, 
and who fly to Him as the never-failing refuge of His 
people. Even now, beloved, does He say to us, ' ' He that 
loveth father or mother, sister or brother, husband or 
wife, son or daughter, more than Me, is not worthy of 
Me :" still does He say to us individually — " Give Me thy 
heart/' And if our hearts be given to Him, He will so 



160 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

bless them, that we shall say with Asaph — " "Whom have 
I in heaven but Thee ? and what is there upon earth I 
desire beside Thee ?" 



THE DEATH OF THE BELIEVER IN JESUS. 

EEV. JAMES HENRY GWITHER, ENGLAND. 

IN THE PARISH CHURCH OF YARDLEY, ENGLAND. 
ON THE DEATH OF MISS ELIZABETH H. 

" Them also which sleep in Jesus." — 1 Thess. iv: 14. 

T1TE are indebted to Divine revelation for all the cer- 
tain knowledge we possess of a future state. It 
is true that a light of nature afforded strong indications 
of this fact, which philosophy set down as evidences, and 
the desire of a future existence implanted in the human 
mind magnified into proofs ; but all was dark, confused, 
and absurd speculation, until the Gospel-day dawned 
upon the world, and the shadows of doubt and uncer- 
tainty fled away. Hence "life and immortality are 
brought to light by the Gospel :" and what philosophy 
could not do, in that it was weak and imperfect, Chris- 
tianity has done in so satisfactory and comprehensive 
a manner, that we may say with the apostle, " Thanks 
be to God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ." 
Now a vista is opened through the dark valley of 
death, and the eye of faith may descry the glory which 
waits to be revealed. The place of the Great King rises 
before our enlightened vision, and seems to extend its 
gates spread wide for our reception. The gloom of death 
is illuminated, its solitude cheered, its bitterness de- 
stroyed, by the light, comforts, promises and hopes of 
the Gospel ; and the dying Christian is encouraged to 
descend with confidence into the cold streams of Jordan, 



YOUTH. 161 

and to commit; himself to the waves, whilst the Star of 
Promise, shining upon the dark waters, guides him 
homewards. Death then, hath nothing formidable to 
thee, Christian ! In the tomb of Jesus Christ are 
dissipated all the terrors which the tomb of nature pre- 
sents. In the tomb of nature, sinner ! thou beholdest 
thy frailty, thy subjection to the curse and bondage of 
corruption ; in the tomb of Jesus Christ thou beholdest 
thy strength and deliverance. In the tomb of nature 
the punishment of sin stares thee in the face ; in the 
tomb of Jesus thou findest the expiation of it. Prom 
the tomb of nature thou nearest the dreadful sentence 
pronounced against every child of Adam — "Dust thou 
art, and unto dust shalt thou return ;" but from the 
tomb of Jesus Christ issue those accents of consolation — 
"I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believe th in 
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live," John xi. 25. 
In the tomb of nature thou hearest this universal, this 
irrevocable doom written, "It is appointed unto man 
once to die ;" but in the tomb of Jesus Christ thy tongue 
is loosed into this triumphant song of praise, " death! 
where is thy sting ? grave ! where is thy victory ? 
thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through 
our Lord Jesus* Christ." 

And, not only are these views of death and these pros- 
pects of future glory to the sincere believer animating 
and encouraging, when taken in connection with his own 
dissolution, but they are especially so when he has to 
mourn the loss of beloved Christian relatives and friends. 
Taken from our arms ! Whither are they conveyed ? 
They have arrived at home ; they are not lost — oh! no — 
they have reached their Father's house — they are infinite- 
ly better and happier than when with us. The separa- 
tion we are called to endure, be assured, is only tem- 
porary. A time of re-union will come ; we shall see their 



162 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

faces and hear their voices again in the flesh. Oh ! ho^ 
cheering a consolation ! how suitable and how sure ! 

"Brethren, I would not have you to be ignorant con- 
cerning them which are asleep. 

I. The description here given us of the death of true 
believers. " Them that sleep in Jesus." 

1. " TJiey sleep" Under the dispensation of the 
G-ospel the term sleep is frequently made use of in the 
Scriptures to signify death. In the case of the ruler's 
daughter, our blessed Lord was applied to, to exert His 
power in the restoration of the damsel from the dead. 
"My daughter," said the distressed, broken-hearted 
parent, "is even now dead, but come and lay Thine 
hand upon her and she shall live." Accordingly, "as 
soon as Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the 
minstrels and people making a noise, He said unto them, 
Give place, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth" On 
another occasion, when desirous to inform His disciples 
of a message which had been sent unto Him by the 
weeping and disconsolate sisters of Bethany, relative to 
to their brother's death, Jesus mildly says, " Our friend 
Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of 
sleep." Concerning the dying martyr Stephen also, it is 
recorded, amidst infuriated persecutors, blood-thirsty 
enemies, and showers of stones, "he kneeled down and 
prayed, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge ; and 
when he had said this he fell asleep." David by the 
apostle Paul, is also honorably mentioned as " after 
having served his generation according to the will of 
God, fallen on sleep;" and in a word, the term is 
constantly by the apostles referred to those who die in 
the Lord. 

The term is peculiarly applicable in this point of 
view. It is expressive of the ease and readiness with 
which a Christian dies. " Mark the perfect man, and 



YOUTH. 163 

» 

behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace." 
He is "justified by faith, and has peace with God." 
The sprinkling of the blood of Christ has purged his 
conscience, and destroyed the sting of death, which is 
sin. His hope is cast upon the Eock of Ages — his soul 
is committed into the hands of One who is able to keep 
it — his sins are all forgiven — his heart sanctified by the 
indwelling of the Holy Spirit — his title clear to the 
heavenly inheritance — and thus, as easily and readily as 
a weary and way-worn traveler retires to rest, so does the 
Christian enter into rest and sleep in Jesus. And this 
rest is pure, undisturbed, and everlasting. " They shall 
rest from their labors." Then their praying days will 
be all over. Never more can it be said to them, "Be 
patient in tribulation," or " Fight the good fight of 
faith." " Without were fightings, and within ivere 
fears." But they are for ever ended. Darkness no 
longer struggles with light, or faith with unbelief. 
" The flesh " no longer "lusteth against the spirit, nor 
the spirit against the flesh." 

Ye glorified saints, you can tell us what this 
blessed rest, this sleeping in Jesus is. You have tra- 
versed the wilderness, where you wandered in a solitary 
way — where you found no continuing city — where hungry 
and thirsty your f ' soul fainted within you ;" but you 
have left the desert — you have passed the Jordan — you 
are come to your rest — and your pilgrim feet have ter- 
minated their earthly labors. Your week days, your 
worldly days, are now over, and you have begun Sabbath. 
Here you loved the Sabbath, but here the Sabbath was 
soon gone. You sometimes passed silent Sabbaths, and 
had to mourn the loss of sanctuary ordinances. You 
always spent imperfect ones; you could not do the things 
which you would ; and you grew weary in the service 
of God, though not of it. But now your strength is 



164 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

renewed — you are " for ever with the Lord " — you 
"serve Him day and night in His temple" — you have 
the "keeping of Sabbath which remains for the people 
of God." 

But sleep, as applied to the death of a believer, does 
not only intimate the peace witli which he departs hence 
and the rest he is eternally to enjoy, but it may express 
also the expectation and hope he has of a future resur- 
rection. We lie down to rest in sleep, expecting (if the 
Lord will) again to arise refreshed and strengthened for 
the duties of another day. We commit ourselves to 
slumber, relying on the guardian care of "Him who 
never slumbereth or sleepeth " to protect and defend us, 
and also enable us to wake with renewed vigor. And 
such hope has every believer. "Now is Christ risen 
from the dead, the first-fruits of them who slept." 
Death and the grave have no longer power to retain one 
single body in their dominion. So, then, the believer 
only sleeps ; he lays his head upon the lap of earth ; 
the tomb is the resting place, the couch on which the 
weary body shall repose until the dawn of the resurrec- 
tion morning. Then shall the slumbering dead arise, 
"the trumpets shall sound, and the dead shall be 
raised." How truly refreshing — with what immortal 
bloom shall the glorified bodies of the saints appear 
washed! "This corruptible will put on incorruption, 
and this mortal put on immortality." Every form then 
shall appear perfected in the image of Christ — not an 
eye but shall sparkle with delight — not a brow on which 
shall not be placed a wreath of victory — not a counte- 
nance that shall not be radiant with the Kedeemer's 
glory — not a soul or body that shall not be SAvallowed up 
of bliss. 

Believers only sleep ; let a few more years roll over 
their tombs — let a few more revolutions shake the world 



TOUTS. 165 

— and then shall be seen "the sign of the Son of man 
in heaven," coming to gather together His saints, unite 
their glorified souls to their spiritual and incorruptible 
bodies, that so both may " ever be with the Lord." 
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 

2. The second description afforded of the death of 
believers is, they sleep ts In Jesus." To such who have 
attentively examined the character and profession of a 
true Christian, it must have been evident that with them 
Jesus "is all and in all." To them He is every thing. 
He is their life; and the "life they now live in the flesh 
is by the faith of the Son of God, who loved them and 
gave Himself for them." Nor is He less the preserver 
and security, than "the Author and Giver" of their 
spiritual life ; "because I live," saith He, "ye shall live 
also." "Your life," saith Paul, "is hid with Christ in 
God." He is their strength; "they can do all things 
only through Christ who strengthened them," and are 
alone " strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." In 
a word, He " is of God made unto them wisdom and 
righteousness, santification and redemption." Are they 
justified from the guilt and condemnation of sin ? it is 
by Jesus. "There is no condemnation to them who are 
in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after 
the Spirit." Are they sanctified, body, soul, and spirit ? 
it is "by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus." Are they 
accepted of God ? it is only through the Beloved. Are 
they reconciled to God ? " He is their peace, who hath 
made both one, and broken down the middle wall of 
separation." Are they heirs of God, adopted into His 
family, made partakers of the Divine nature, and ex- 
pectants of the Divine glory ? they are only " children 
of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Thus all they are, all 
they hope to be is through Him ; all they have in pos- 
session, all they anticipate in re-union, all of grace here, 



166 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

all of glory hereafter, is of Him, from Him, by Him. 
And what effect has this sentiment upon their Christian 
deportment and experience ? It weans them from earth ; 
"Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
all the treasures" of the world. It is the spring of their 
obedience; for they "are not their own, and live not 
unto themselves, but to Him who died for them and 
rose again." It is their support in weakness, their hope 
in darkness, their joy in sorrow, their comfort in afflic- 
tion, their triumph in death. So then, Christ is "the 
Alpha and Omega," "the First and the Last," "their 
Chief Corner Stone," "all their salvation, and all their 
desire." And such being the case through life, it has 
its influence in death. Jesus appears truly precious to 
the bereaved and afflicted, to the tempted and persecuted 
believer. His word is alivays a cordial — His grace 
always sufficient — His smile alivays inspiring bliss un- 
speakable — His consolations always abundant ; but never 
so truly so as in the hour of death. Life is departing ; 
but he clings with a more endearing grasp to Jesus. 
Time is fading; but the clouds and mists which obscure 
all temporal things are clearing away from the face of 
Jesus, that he may see Him more perfectly. 

Friends, kind and affectionate, are weeping around 
his dying bed, and waiting for his departing blessing — 
each lingering behind the other, to catch the dying gaze, 
or hear the last sigh, and he feels desolate and alone, as 
one after another vanishes from his vision. But Jesus 
departs not — Jesus forsakes him not ; He is the strength 
of his guilty flesh and heart, and lifts up his head when 
bowed in death ; the presence of Jesus is all he requires, 
and the promises of Jesus all he desires. But behold ! 
the last struggle is come — he pants for breath — now 
blesses his family — now he utters his last prayer — now 
his fluttering heart is still — his eyes have for ever closed 



YOUTH. 16? 

— his head plainly sinks upon the pillow. Hark ! he 
breathes not — all is over, and he sleeps in Jesus. Dis- 
turb not his slumbers ! he sleeps ! peace reigns in his 
heart, and a smile beams upon the pallid cheek. He 
sleeps ! composed to slumber, he awaits the sounding of 
the archangel's trump, to awaken his body to life. 

Thus you have been led to view the twofold descrip- 
tion of the death of a Christian. I might easily enlarge, 
but I forbear ; enough I trust has been said, to lead you 
all to adopt the language of one of old, and say, "Let 
me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end 
be like his." 

Beloved brethren, I have very faintly and imperfect- 
ly sketched the picture of the Christian's death ; but I 
would lead you to seek to become such yourselves, that 
you may for yourselves experience what peace they have 
who sleep in Jesus. But I must apply the remarks al- 
ready made to the case of our dear departed friend and 
sister in the Lord. Without hesitation would we say, it 
is our hope, yea, our firm belief, that she sleeps in Jesus. 
Early in life, her mind became the subject of serious 
religious impressions, and she was always remarked for 
being blessed with a peculiarly tender conscience. By 
the reading of God's Word, and regular attendance upon 
the means of grace, her religious feelings expanded, and 
her convictions of sin became very strong, and the con- 
sciousness of her depravity preyed much upon her mind, 
and for some years greatly cast her down in spirit. She 
was at last enabled to look to Jesus, and by simple faith 
to commit the keeping of her soul into His hands, rely- 
ing entirely upon His blood and righteousness for pardon 
and acceptance with God. 

Hers was not a dead, or an unproductive faith. No ; 
she evinced the power of godliness, by attendance upon 
its forms. Her diligent labors in the Sunday school 



168 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

connected with this church, her self-denial in acts of 
piety and charity to the poor, her desire for, and labor 
in, promoting the cause of her Lord and Master, in 
collecting for the Church Missionary and other kindred 
societies, her visits to the house of "the widow and 
fatherless in their affliction/' and her constant, up- 
right, consistent profession of piety in her family — all 
these things, my dear hearers, speak louder than any 
words of mine, in proof of the sincerity of our departed 
sister's religion. 



WHAT WILL YE DO IN THE END ? 

REV. THOMAS BINNEY. 

WEIGH-HOUSE CHAPEL, LONDON. 

" What will ye do in the end?" — Jeremiah v : 31. 
"TN consistency with the very general custom, I am 
about to-night, as we are at the commencement of 
the year, to address myself to young persons, making par- 
ticular reference to the circumstances, history and death 
of a young man, at the age of twenty-one. 

His end was, peace. What will yours be ? My text 
will be a question, which you will find in the fifth chapter 
of Jeremiah, and the last clause of the last verse : — 

1. In the first place, I observe, then there is an end, 
to anticipate. 

"All men," as Young says — 

"All men think all men mortal but themselves." 

They may not say it ; they might reject the thought, 
if presenting itself very distinctly in their intellect ; but 
they feel it, and act as if it were true. But we know 
it to be a deception, and we know it to be dangerous. 






YOUTH. 169 

There is an end. An end to life : to every course of 
life — every kind of it. Honors cannot be accumulated 
for ever; nor profits made for ever; nor pleasures en- 
joyed for ever. Every step is getting nearer to the ter- 
mination. 

And it may be soon : sudden. Where are the young 
men, after a little while, that from every part of the 
country, at all times throughout the year, are being drifted 
hither as by a strong tide setting in from every point 
round about, and bringing them to our doors, our streets, 
our warehouses ? "What is this great metropolis to them 
— many of them ? A great gulf, into which they are 
drifted — and drifted — and drifted ; and many of them 
appear for a little while and vanish for ever. 

Now you know this. You know what changes you 
young men are continually seeing in the place, in the 
company, in the servants, the agents, of mercantile es- 
tablishments : how you miss such and such an individual. 
You saw him last perhaps at a place of amusement ; 
you saw him last in the midst of pleasures—and perhaps 
guilty ones. You wonder what is become of him. What 
is become of him ! the young man has gone home to die. 
And from our warehouses, our offices and our streets, our 
places of business and places of pleasure, one after another 
is retiring to die ! Thus the change is continually go- 
ing on. 

" What will ye do in the end ?" Then — this would 
seem to be of great importance at the end. 

2. What has been the character of the course ? 

If " the end " were to be taken absolutely, with the 
absoluteness of infidelity, the question would have no 
meaning. " What will ye do in the end ?" ( Nothing; 
for I shall be nothing.' ( What shall I do in the end ? I 
shall do just what I did before I was born — when I had 
not an existence — when I was not ; for I shall be that 
8 



170 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

again/ If infidelity be true, that would be the 
reply. 

I know, that some teach what I suppose they may 
think a very magnificent and beautiful thing — the im- 
mortality of man in the sense of the immortality of the 
species, and its indefinite, perpetual improvement. As 
if it were any thing to me — to my heart with its innate 
hunger after life, with my affections and capacities and 
conscious individuality of being— to tell me about the in- 
dividuals of some future generation that are to exist. To 
tell me to rejoice in a thing like that ! — when I am to be 
nothing, and there is only to be this sort of abstract im- 
mortality of the species. 

No. " What will ye do in the end ?" It is a matter 
that is to come home to our own business, character and 
course, in relation to ourselves. For our moral instincts, 
general experience, consciousness, the representations of 
Scripture tell us, that as we approach the end, and when 
we get there, the character of the course will be (if I may 
so express it) of more importance than it is now : of more 
importance at the end than previously — previously where 
there is merciful discipline, where there is a mixture of 
circumstances, where there is the opportunity of change, 
where there are all the appliances of providence and grace. 

At " the end," when all these are about to be re- 
moved for ever, it will be of the highest possible import- 
ance, what has been the character of the course, on which 
they have been impressed. So that looking upon the 
dead man, it is not so much a question with God, how 
the man died, as what the man was when he came to die 
— how he gob there — what was the character of the 
course that brought him to that point. 

" 3. What will ye do in the end?" 

It is the part of a thoughtful and wise man, often to 
meditate on this. 



TOUTB. 171 

I need not enlarge here. Every man admits it in 
matters of worldly experience. The student, at his col- 
lege and in his class, if month after month he neglects 
his studies and abandons his books, if he gives neither 
his days nor nights to the hearty and fearless pursuit of 
those things which are to prepare him for the ultimate 
examination, and if, when he goes up and presents him- 
self there, he is rejected, it is what he had to anticipate, 
and what might have been prevented if he had been 
more in the habit of pressing this question to his heart, 
and thinking with respect to his pursuits what would be 
"the end" of the course which he was taking. And to 
you, my friends, — I need not to many of you expatiate 
on the absurdity of the tradesman, that should never 
take stock : that should go on from year to year, without 
understanding his position — without inquiring into it : 
that should go on continually incurring expense, and 
laying out money, and accepting bills, — doing this, that 
and the other, and never investigate, and never know 
precisely where he was. . If ruin came, ruin crushing 
him and trampling him down, — if he were to awake 
some morning, and find himself utterly ruined, you 
would not be surprised. He should have asked himself 
the question, and pressed it again and again upon his 
heart. Going on thus, whither will it lead ? whither ? 

4. In the last place, we think that this question 
should be frequently and earnestly entertained by young 
men. We think, that young men would do well to press 
this question, in its moral and religious sense and aspect, 
upon themselves. 

It might be thought perhaps, that it is of more im- 
portance for those who have gone further on in their 
course, and nearer to the end. It is very important to 
them ; but let me tell you this, — when men have gone on 
and on, and got iron-bound in their habits of indifference, 



172 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

impenitence, sin, I for one have very little hope of them. 
I do not expect much from preaching or praying, or al- 
most any instrumentality that can be brought to bear 
upon them. And from the men that have got on in life, 
and have gone on without God, I turn almost in despair. 
And I turn to you, the hope of the world and of the 
Church, — you young men. I look to you; and I beg 
you, because you have not thus got on, and got yet under 
this mighty and dreadful influence of habit, to lay this 
question to heart at the beginning of your course, that it 
may have much to do in giving it a character and fixing 
your ultimate destination. 

Yes, my young men, it is important to you to lay this 
question to heart, because it is so important how you 
legin : as habit always will be either your greatest friend 
or your greatest adversary. Important, because there are 
so many circumstances of danger round about you. And 
therefore I press it upon you, that it should be enter- 
tained. 

Many of you are living lives somewhat solitary, or 
shut up continually with associates of your own sex in 
your warehouses, and thus wanting that purifying public 
opinion, which comes upon the young man, when he has 
free intercourse in the homes, the virtuous homes of our 
Christian country. You need to press this matter and 
this question very much upon you. You need it, because 
early in life especially you will find yourselves surrounded 
by individuals, who will be leading you astray, — the 
scorner, the hardened in vice, — temptations besetting 
your path at every point ; and you will be almost shamed 
sometimes into sin, from the want of moral courage for 
its resistance. And therefore it is important, that you 
should bring the moral suggestions embodied in this 
thought to bear upon your understandings, your con- 
science, and your habits. 



YOUTH. 173 

You are in danger, because at your age you cannot 
see habitually very far before you, unless really you do 
make an effort at reflection. It is your temptation — it 
is oue of the peculiar temptations that beset you, to feel 
with respect to this and that and the other, which are 
really morally questionable — Why, what harm can there 
be in that ? It is one of your temptations — { I will do 
this, I will go thus far, but there I stop.' It is one of 
the circumstances by which you are beset, that you just 
see a very little way before you, and what you see is at- 
tractive or beautiful — or you make it so. Forgetting — 
not knowing from your want of deeper experience and 
further observation of life, that when once a young man 
enters within the vicious circle, his first vicious actions 
are generally "the beginning of the end." He goes on 
at it ; he goes on as he has begun ; he goes onward — on- 
ward — step by step, from bad to worse, until he finds 
himself completely in the grasp and under the power of 
the adversary. 

We want to press the question upon you, because as 
we have already hinted, "the end" may come to you. 
It may come and surprise you, in the midst of your pur- 
posings and procrastination. And with respect to what 
we call vice, I should like you to remember, that they 
that become thoroughly and flagrantly vicious, generally 
begin soon, and die early too. They "do not live out 
half their days." And they bring their "end ;" they (as 
it were) stretch out their hands, and seize it, and em- 
brace it, and bring it nearer and nearer to them ; and 
" in the -midst of life " most emphatically " they are in 
death ;" they depart, and they are gone, — " receiving the 
end" of their deeds, "even the damnation of their 
souls." 

I wish to urge the question of the text on the undecid- 
ed in religion : on all that are distinguished by irrelig- 



174 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

iousness, — some of whom may be the virtuous and the 
amiable and the good, socially, as well as the bad and the 
indifferent. And I should like all such to press the ques- 
tion home upon their hearts to-night before God. 

Now by being religious, I do not mean that you are 
to be connected with that part or branch of the Church 
of Christ that / prefer. 

But we mean, when we say that you are not yet religious, 
that there is the consciousness within you that you do not 
like the Divine service ; that you have not given your- 
selves thoroughly, in earnest and in heart, to the reception 
of the Christian faith, to trust in the Christian atonement, 
to devotedness to Christian habits, to habitual intercourse 
and fellowship with God, to the cultivation of your re- 
ligious nature, and to the manifestation of feelings and 
affections and attributes of character, which distinguish 
the spiritually devoted to the service of the Most High ; 
that you are conscious that your heart is being kept back, 
from some cause or other, and you are not wholly and 
heartily and earnestly decided for God and for Jesus 
Christ. 

I know why it is, that many of you are kept in this 
state. Some of you I believe to be of pure habits, with 
upright and honorable principle in you, addicted to 
mental and intellectual qualification. You have your 
pleasures of the intellect ; you understand something of 
what results from coming under the influence of genius, 
and bringing your taste and feeling into contact with 
what is elevating in the results of mind. You are govern- 
ed, in your habitual intercourse with mankind, by what 
is right and honorable and pure, despising everything that 
is mean, disingenuous, contemptible. And you are satis- 
fied tvith that. And you feel perhaps something of re- 
pugnance to what you hear, and to what you think too 
Christianity really does teach, with respect to the way to 



YOUTH. 175 

be saved. Some of you feel internal disgust and contempt 
for the hypocrisy and the cant, which you sometimes see 
associated with the profession of religion. You feel dis- 
gust and contempt for the low tastes and the vulgarity, 
and much that is offensive, in some personal specimens of 
common Christianity. And others of you are conscious, 
that without thoughts of this sort, there is constantly 
operating upon you the love of some sin, the power of 
some habit, some evil thing, in practice and in fact, which 
is constantly at your side; and though you have your 
deep stirrings of mind, and your searchings of heart, and 
your impressions and convictions and resolutions and pur- 
poses, there is always, just in connection with these, the 
tempter at your side, in the form of the evil habit, that 
keeps you bound to your savory and darling sin. And 
a thousand other things I might mention, of different 
forms of thought and feeling, which are operating on 
young men, and keeping them where they are, — those who 
are standing here in all their variety of character (morally 
speaking), good, bad and indifferent, but, from some 
reason or other, in their irreligiousness, not having in 
them Divine faith, religious affection, devotedness to 
Christ. 

" What will ye do in the end ? " The question is to 
you, my friends : " What will ye do in the end ? " You 
know, the end will come. Now just in two or three 
words let me refer to the application of the question to 



We will take " the end " to be sickness and death : 
"what will ye do in the end ? " — when, be sure of this, 
some of you will find out the utter insufficiency of these 
things as reasons of your neglect, and find them to have 
been the most superficial of excuses. What ! cannot you 
separate between religion and its adjuncts and its acci- 
dents ? What ! you, with your discrimination and your 



176 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

intellect, — you, with your intellectual improvement and 
taste and perspicacity, — could not you distinguish between 
religion and the weakness or worthlessness of those that 
might degrade or dishonor it ? and could you pretend to 
be entangled by a sophistry like that ? Were difficulties 
to deter you ? Might it not have turned out, that the 
very existence of these difficulties might have even proved 
to you an evidence on behalf of religion, and a necessary 
process of moral discipline, through which you must pass ? 
and might not the moral test implied in these things, 
have had a most healthy operation upon your intellect and 
faith and heart, and have given a strength and firmness 
to the evidence of religion itself. 

Others of you, however (in the language of Scripture) 
will not "submit yourselves unto the righteousness of 
God," but like the Jew of old, " being ignorant of God's 
righteousness" or rejecting God's method of justifica- 
tion, "and going about to establish your own," you 
" will not submit unto the righteousness of God," then 
perhaps, when you feel yourselves drawing very near to 
the Divine presence and the Divine eye, you may get 
such a view of your nature, of the emptiness of mere 
secular virtue and of the insufficiency of what you have 
for heaven, that you may see how the redemption of the 
Gospel, and the mystery of the cross, and the "open 
fountain," and "the words of life," as exhibited in 
God's method of mercy, are just the thing which your 
need and your nature require, and that all through life 
you have been putting away from you and rejecting the 
Divine wisdom, the wisdom of God in this evangelical 
mystery of mercy. 

Some of you may perhaps find then, that the course 
of chosen thought and feeling, through which you had 
been going, in which (so to speak) you had been educat- 
ing your own nature, has produced a state of mind, 



YOUTH. 177 

which., while it leads you to be alarmed and terrified, may 
refuse to be softened, and the heart to become again like 
that of a little child. My brethren, " what will ye do in 
the end," when you find that then the Gospel and you can- 
not meet as strangers, that then Jesus Christ and you 
cannot meet as if you had never met before ? — He hav- 
ing been knockiDg at your heart for years, and continu- 
ally refused ; you opening that door, and admitting sin 
and the world and the devil to come past Him, and 
taking them to your fellowship and your bosom, and He 
standing and knocking and asking entrance till He hath 
departed ; the Spirit having been drawing and attract- 
ing, until it hath departed ; the Gospel having been 
presented to you again and again, until all its aspects, 
and all the force of argument and persuasion come upon 
you as familiar things ? " What will you do in the 
end," when you find, that by going on in a continual 
course of indecision and rejecting religious faith, you 
have come only to have the eye of your intellect opened 
to behold the beauty and the truth of these things, but 
to have your heart and your conscience hardened and 
withered within you ? I believe that is possible. 

But mark, "the end is not yet ;" after you have got 
to this, "the end is not 3 T et." You have to appear be- 
fore God, standing in the full blaze of the light from 
the eternal throne, with your whole history discovered 
to you — inscribed upon your nature ; everything written 
out in full legible characters, and you standing there 
before the throne of. God reading it as in a moment. 
And then, when there is urged and presented upon you, 
what your nature was with its capacities, what your 
position was with its responsibilities and obligations, 
what your privileges were with your Sabbaths, and ser- 
vices, and friends, and conscience, and all the apparatus 
of eternal life, and all this enjoyed in vain, and rejected, 
8* 



178 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

and put away from you, — "what will ye do" in that 
final "end?" Aye, "can thy heart endure, and thy 
hand be strong, in the day that /shall deal with thee ?" 
"Because I have called and ye refused, I have stretched 
out My hand and no man regarded, I also will laugh at 
your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh." 
"All they that hate Me," (and all hate Me, who will 
not open their hearts affectionately and earnestly to the 
reception of My truth and love,) — "all they that hate 
Me, love death." 

Ah ! my brethren, if you once fall under the con- 
demnation of God, I have nothing to offer to you in the 
form of hope ; nothing. I can find nothing in the 
Scriptures to favor in the least the idea — not the 
slightest atom of evidence or indication of it — that the 
sufferings of the condemned, the sufferings in the next 
state have anything in them of a nature that is dis- 
ciplinary or purifying. I cannot find it ; and if the 
Christian redemption be what it is, if Christianity be 
what this Book most distinctly and definitely declares, 
what it plainly and clearly articulates — the gift of God's 
Son as the sacrifice for the guilt of the world, I do not 
see how it can be possible to conceive, that there can be 
in the punishment, that must follow the rejection of 
that great and unspeakable gift, a virtue and a purity, 
that should, after all, cleanse the soul and bring it to 
heaven. God knows whether it be right to alleviate, by 
the least consideration, the agony and the oppression, 
that come upon the heart in the thought of eternal 
punishment ; God knows whether it be right or proper, 
to admit the remotest hope of relief from ultimate or 
absolute destruction ; but sure I am of this, that what- 
ever we may not know with respect to that possibility, 
we do know that there is no possibility of the restoration 
of the condemned. 



YOUTH. 179 

But it is not necessary, dear friends, that any one of 
you should come to this end, that I have been describ- 
ing. 

Nay, observe, that if Christianity be true, there is 
the most amazing provision for securing the contrary. 
The unspeakable gift, the infinite atonement, the open 
purifying fountain, the preaching of the Gospel, the 
great and precious promises of Divine influence, the 
beseeching — the tender, beseeching entreaty of God, the 
continued urgency of the Word and Spirit in the 
providence of God for years, — really, brethren, when I 
think of all these things, the wonder rather seems to 
me that any should be lost, than that there should be a 
few that are saved. There is no reluctancy in God in 
relation to your salvation. "No, just the contrary; a 
forwardness — desire — a paternal yearning that every one 
of His children should come and repose upon His bosom, 
and be surrounded and filled with the affluence of His 
love. There is no necessity for the end I have described 
being yours. 

In the last place, we sometimes, in the providence of 
God, have beautiful instances and examples of another 
sort of end ; and it becometh us to let our eye rest on 
them, — to let our ear be open to the Divine voices, that 
may come to us from the pillow of a dying saint, — to 
open our hearts to the reception of such lessons. And 
I have one such now to bring before you to-night. 

The young man to whom I refer, was born in the 
north of Scotland. He was blest with pious parents, — 
though I observe from some of his papers, that a Scottish 
Sabbath and Scottish Catechetical Lectures had not left 
upon his mind an amiable and attractive association with 
religion ; but his heart is full, I observe in speaking of the 
piety and religious anxiety and love of the parents, from 
whom he sprang. Of course he commenced his educa- 



180 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

tion there. He had a remarkable deliverance from death, 
when he was about eleven years of age ; he was bathing, 
and was carried out into the sea, and lost his energy and 
self-possession in swimming. A youth struck off after 
him, and was caught by a wave ; and another boy sinking. 
he of course turned to rescue the one nearest home. By 
the time he had got to shore, the other was still further 
gone : but some sailors in a boat took him up. He was 
quite insensible, and continued in that state for about five 
and twenty or thirty minutes, apparently dead ; but at 
last means were successful for restoring animation, and 
giving him back to life, that he might see the light of the 
Sun of righteousness, and spiritually " walk before God 
in the land of the living. 7 ' 

His education was followed up at Edinburgh, and at 
Glasgow, where he had a brother attending the University; 
and in his sixr-enth year he came a lad to this great 
metropolis, ro enter into a most respectable wholesale 
house of busiuess. And now the trial of Jife, of course, 
began with him in earnest. He had been under religi- 
ous circumstances, and in contact with religious persons, 
and the eye of maternal or fraternal affection had been 
constantly on his side; and now he was brought here. 
Here he was not altogether removed from the same sort 
of restraint and influence, for it was his happinesf 
have settled in the metropolis a sister and brother-in- 
law, intelligent and pious, and he felt of course trans- 
ferred to them something like the guardianship that had 
been exercised before ; still, they could not have their 
eye always upon him, and he could not be always with 
them ; and a lad of his age and in his circumstances, one 
might soon come to find, would not be always there 
either. 

He felt the influence (as he has told me, and as I have 
seen in looking over his papers,) — he felt the influence 



YOUTK 181 

of these new circumstances, of the associations into which 
he was thrown, of the comparative freedom which he en- 
joyed, and of the possibility of having his own way and 
being to himself his own law. First a part of the Sab- 
bath went, and then sometimes the whole of it ; and to 
a young Scotch lad, with his Sabbath associations and 
ideas of Sabbath obligation and Sabbath sanctity, to be- 
gin to break into fragments the day of God, and to abuse 
it, and to trample the fragments under foot, and to float 
away first upon a piece, and then to give the whole to 
some rural excursion, or to give some pleasure which could 
not be innocent nor thought to be innocent, was the 
beginning of the breaking down of some of those fences 
that were about his virtue and about his heart. 

He frequented too, in a little time, public places of 
amusement. And though he was mercifully saved, and 
by the grace of God drawn out, thus being kept and pre- 
served from the consequences, to which that step might 
lead, he was not drawn out without some scars upon the 
inner man, through the effect that was left upon the 
state of his imagination and his heart* 

What a mysterious — magical, Divine thing, is a 
mother's love ! How it nestles about the heart, and goes 
with the man, and speaks to him pure words, and is like 
a guardian angel ! This young man could never take 
any money that came to him from his mother, and spend 
that upon a Sunday excursion or a treat to a theatre. It 
was a sacred thing to him ; it had the inrpression and 
the inscription of his mother's image, his mother's purity 
his mother's piety, and his mother's love. And these 
things that he felt to be questionable, or sinful, were al- 
ways to be provided for by money that came to him from 
other hands. Oh ! there is the poetry of the heart, the 
poetry of our home and domestic affections, the poetry of 
the religion of the hearth and the altar, about that little 



182 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

incident ; and it strikes me as being perfectly beautiful. 
You that are mothers, think of this ; and you young men, 
that have mothers far away, with hearts full of anxiety, 
think of their love, and let the recollection of their love 
be as your guardian angel, to watch over you and keep 
you in the way. 

I find, in looking over his papers, that in attending 
worship he very frequently had his own character dis- 
tinctly placed before him ; that the preacher very often 
arraigned, convicted, condemned, and he felt the exhibi- 
tion to be himself ; that he took it to his heart, he went 
home trembling under its impression, he began under it 
to purpose and to pray — and to sin again, to sin again ! 

The heart, you see, was not decidedly given up to 
God, but liable to these impressions and agitations ; and 
so he was finding excuses, and sometimes tried to satisfy 
himself with a purpose and a prayer, — and then it was 
forgotten. Sometimes the idea of destiny occurred to 
him : God's perfect omniscience — purpose — sovereignty. 
I dare say, you young men know something about this. 
' Well, God knows distinctly and accurately the end, He 
knows what is to be and what is purposed, what can I do? 
Whatever I do, that end must be reached ; if I am to be 
saved, I am, — if I shall be, I shall be.' And so he kept 
tampering with his moral nature, — tampering with every 
pure, healthy moral instinct within him ; rising up un- 
der the consciousness of responsibility and moral power, 
and then dozing and stupefying the conscience by this 
idea of destiny. 

I am giving you the outlines of the history of a young 
man's heart ; and " as face answereth to face, so does the 
heart of man to man ; " and the history of this heart may, 
by the blessing of God, have its influence on some of 
yours. 

About this time there was a new Chapel opened in 



YOUTH. 183 

the York Road ; and his sister thinking of him, and 
looking at him as amiable and virtuous, but without 
decision in religion, put down his name as a teacher for 
the Sunday School, and told him so. And his heart, he 
says, revolted within him. For he was beginning to 
love his sins and his pleasures and his amusements, and 
those things on which he was thus beginning to enter ; 
he did not want to be religious : and he did not cer- 
tainly wish to appear more religious than he was. His 
heart revolted at both these things ; and he went that 
night with his relatives to that place of worship, with his 
heart thus troubled and disturbed, this enmity rising up 
against the work to which he was committed, for which 
he had no taste, and which he did not wish to enter 
upon, for he did not wish to teach that which he felt 
that he did not love. 

The preacher was a young man, of great seriousness 
and of great promise. He preached from the text — 
1 ' And they all began to make excuse f and I suppose, 
he took up the different sorts of excuses that men might 
feel for neglecting God's service. He says, no particular 
part of the sermon, but the whole generally produced a 
deep and indescribable impression upon his conscience 
and heart. All the way home he kept conversing with 
himself, and casting in his own heart, and asking him- 
self why he should wish to be excused : why he should 
wish to be excused from that service, to which his Father 
invited him, and which they who had entered it, he 
well knew, declared to be happiness and freedom. And 
he prayed-for strength ; and his heart gave birth, under 
God, to a resolute purpose, and he determined he would 
no longer wish to be excused. He went home with that 
determination, and he acted upon it instantly. He be- 
gan immediately to read the Scriptures ; and taking up 
the first book upon which he laid his hand (which he 



184 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

considered to be a guidance of God's providence), Mr. 
James's Anxious Enquirer, and he read the introductory 
observations, giving direction as to the way in which the 
author wishes it to be read — with earnest prayer and per- 
sonal application. He began that night, and read on ; 
and that night he bowed his knee to God and the Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ, pouring into His ear the utter- 
ance of a broken heart and a returning and repenting 
child. Day after day he went on reading this book, and 
receiving light from it, and understanding his own heart, 
until he felt that he really, completely, entirely, with 
perfect sincerity and with perfect honesty of heart and 
intention, " received the atonement," rested upon it, and 
felt his heart filled full of love to God — filled full of the 
thought of the Divine love to him and of his love to 
God back again — and devoted himself to God's service. 
And never from that moment, as he told me, did he feel 
the least desire after any of his sinful amusements, or 
reluctance to give them up ; never from that moment, 
had he a single doubt or shadow upon his heart, of his 
enjoyment of the Divine mercy, and his calm repose in 
his Father's love. 

I must pass briefly over other matters. His health 
declined ; and he left business. As his health returned, 
before entering on another situation, he spent some time 
with his brother, a minister of a congregational Baptist 
Church ; he spent some time there for his health, and 
his health was restored. From the influences under 
which he was thrown, and the feelings naturally spring- 
ing up in his young heart, he desired to give himself to 
the ministry. Under a slight change of sentiment, he 
received baptism by immersion ; and he was admitted 
into Stepney College, and entered upon his studies with 
great interest and prospect of success. A foundation of 
early classical attainments had been laid, previously to 



TOUTS. 185 

his entering into business ; he had good talents ; and he 
was devoted conscientiously to the improvement of the 
advantages he possessed. A few times he was permitted 
to preach. His person was prepossessing, his elocution 
distinct and impressive, his manner grave. The subjects 
on which his deep seriousness led him to dilate, were al- 
ways important ; and his observations and appeals to the 
heart and conscience,, very pungent. So that there was 
about him, in his circumstances and his prospects, every 
thing to make him the object of deep interest to his 
friends — a flower of sweet fragrance rising up into mature 
perfection ; and every thing to himself to make life 
pleasant and desirable, with the prospect before him of 
usefulness and honor — the thing for which he had 
wished to live. 

But all was to pass away. His illness returned. 
After months, in which his recovery was but questionable, 
though there was hope lying at the bottom of his super- 
ficial appearances of disease, at last it was announced to 
him that he must die. And he returned from Devon- 
shire to die. 

He wrote or dictated many letters to his companions, 
to some that were still in the house of business where he 
had been, and to others of his aquaintance over the 
country, every one of them breathing the most perfect 
approval of the Divine will. No reluctance to die ; the 
fullness of hope ; Divine satisfaction in his heart, sus- 
tained by the power of Divine truth. 

But I will read you now (which will be better than 
my speaking), an account of his last days and hours, which 
was drawn up at my request and for my use by my friend, 
his brother-in-law, that it might give a tinge and color 
to my own thoughts and recollections and phraseology. 
He often said, he did not understand Christians when 
they spoke of 'submitting to the will of God;' the phrase 



186 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

seemed to him to indicate doubt or distrust — at best a 
sort of yielding to hard necessity. The phrase ( myste- 
rious providence? especially when applied to early re- 
movals like his own, seemed to him equally objectionable; 
it seemed to him by no means to express warm affectionate 
confidence. 

" His happy acquiescence in the Divine will evidently 
sprung from the affectionate views, which he always took 
of the character of God. He eminently loved God. 
' God is love ' — was ever on his lips. 

" His joy was calm, deep and unruffled. It flowed 
like a river. During an illness of ten months, it was 
never disturbed ; an impatient word never escaped his 
lips. His decay was gradual, and as serene as sunset. 

" He knew of no morality or spirituality, intended 
only for a sick bed. Disease found him precisely what 
he had been in health. Had he been restored by 
miracle, his habitual state of mind would have been as 
appropriate to activity and health, as it was to solitude 
and weakness. The freshness and buoyancy of his 
spirit never forsook him ; his sound and vigorous com- 
mon sense indicated a healthy mind to the very last. 

"During the last two or three weeks, his weakness 
was very great, and his sufferings were consequently 
much increased ; but love for God and love for every 
body about him drew the sting out of all. His affection 
seemed exhaustless. The streams of love deepened and 
widened as they flowed. He now longed to depart. 
* Perfect love ' had { cast out fear :' ' patience ' seemed 
to have had ' her perfect work ;' he waited anxiously for 
the glad summons. 

"About half -past eight upon Thursday evening, 
December 30 (the last day but one of the last year), he be- 
gan to die. His pain was very great ; at times, he said, 
it was agony ; yet inward spiritual joy still triumphed. 



YOUTH. 187 

Again and again was the earnest prayer heard — ' Come, 
Lord Jesus, come quickly, come quickly? but as regu- 
larly was it followed by the firm proviso — ' Yet not as I 
will, but as Thou wilt.' 

"About half -past ten he was evidently sinking; but 
he was still able gently to wave his hand, bidding those 
around him Farewell ; and he added with a smile — 
' Death ! where is thy sting ? grave ! where is thy 
victory ?' After a little time he spoke once more, to beg 
all about him would be perfectly still : ' Don't speak, 
don't speak,' he feebly uttered, ' I am enjoying deep and 
blessed communion with God.' For above half an hour 
perfect silence was maintained, during which he seemed 
wrapt in meditation, a smile frequently playing about 
his face. About the end of that time, his head gradu- 
ally fell back, his eye brightened, and as if his ear 
caught the harmonies of the invisible world, he ex- 
claimed, in a calm and loud voice, expressive of admira- 
tion — ■ Beautiful! beautiful!' A few moments more, 
and then as if the veil had been withdrawn, which hides 
from mortal eye the radiancy of the upper world, he 
added — ' Glory ! glory I' And with these words dying 
on his lips, he fell back upon his pillow, and his purified 
and happy spirit took its flight to heaven." 

This is a description of tact. It is A fact, whether 
Christianity be true or not. It was the Gospel, that 
sustained and blessed him. And we ask for any system 
to come forward — any system of belief or any system of 
no belief — and let us see any thing like that in their 
triumphs and in their results. 

" Let me die the death of the righteous ; and let my 
last end be like his !" 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES, 



MIDDLE AGE. 



THE COMFOKTING ANNOUNCEMENT. 

WILLIAM ORMISTOtf, D.D., LL.D. 

" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." — Rev. xiv : 13. 
TT is a solemnizing thought that the number of the 
A departed far exceeds that of the living ; — that, of the 
children of men many more rest quietly beneath the sod, 
than restlessly tread upon it. Many among us have more 
dear ones in the other land than here, and we are hasten- 
ing to join them. Death reigns, homes are curtained, 
hearts are saddened and loved ones are missed every day. 
Our only solace is to be found in the Gospel of the Resur- 
rection. It alone illumines the grave — sustains the 
dying — and comforts the bereaved. 

The text is a significant epitaph ; breathing consola- 
tion and inspiring hopes — a noble requiem, joyous, 
triumphant, expectant ; — a light from the beyond whose 
radiance rests on the dark valley, and gilds even the 
coffin. 

Notice 1st. The character defined who die in the 
Lord — asleep in Jesus, not all the dead are blessed, and 
some we must mourn in hopeless sorrow. 
[188] 



MIDDLE AGE. 180 

In the Lord. In Christ, a peculiar expression for a 
unique relationship — a human soul may sustain three 
different relations to Christ, of Christ, in Christ, and with 
Christ, a state of nature — of grace — and of glory. The 
three successively constitute the biography of all the 
ransomed above. It implies that a man is a true Chris- 
tian. 

1. Faith in the person and work of Christ. 

2. Sanctified by the Spirit of Christ. 

3. Conformed to the image of Christ. 
2d. The blessedness pronounced. 

1. Blessed, for they still live unto God. They are 
with Christ. 

2. Blessed, for they rest from anxious care and cease- 
less conflict — from temptation and sin — from the com- 
panionship and assaults of evil. 

3d. Blessed, for they enter into peace and repose ; into 
perfect holiness and absolute security ; into the fellow- 
ship of the spirits of the just made perfect. 

4th. Blessed, for their works follow them — seed sown 
in tears, will then prove sheaves in joy. 

Lessons (a) Consolation for the bereaved. 
(#) Comfort for the dying. 

(c) Incentive for the living. 

(d) Warning for the Christless. 

Let every tolling bell, every nodding hearse, every 
open grave, be a warning, an admonition, a message 
from God to thee. If for us to live is Christ, then to die 
is gain, and we will be blessed in our death. 



190 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES, 



AWAITING COKONATION. 

WILLIAM SPRAGUE, D.D. 

"1 am now ready to be offered," etc. — 2 Tim. iv: 6, 7, 8. 
TOOTHING- Icould be more in keeping with the char- 

acter and circumstances of Paul than this tri- 
umphant language. 

I. Paul had nearly reached the connecting point be- 
tween earth and heaven. He was " Paul the aged." 
His martyrdom had been determined on — the time was 
near. He speaks of his " course " as actually " finished. " 
The next step will be upon the dark boundary. Not to 
be pitied but congratulated. 

II. Paul's retrospect and his reflections thereon. " A 
good fight." It was a good cause — the cause of God — 
of human happiness — for which the Kedeemer died — 
the noblest cause to which the heart of man or angel ever 
beat. To this cause he had brought a full measure of 
zeal and fortitude. He strove with all the vigor and 
earnestness he could command — enemies had been over- 
come and all vigilance and courage had to be put in re- 
quisition. 

"Kept the faith," — had received the Gospel as a 
sacred deposit, had guarded it, defended it, kept it faith- 
fully. Amidst all the varying forms of doubt and un- 
belief he had to encounter he stood firm as a rock in 
defence of truth. He persevered till he had "finished 
his course." Wore his armor and used it to the last. 
Kept the faith to the last and is now girding himself for 
immortality. 

III. He is looking forward to his reward. In review 
conscience bears witness to his fidelity. Now his eye is 
on the future and its glories rise before him — " a crown," 



MIDDLE AGE. 191 

awaiting him — emblem of riches, dignity, authority, — a 
measure of glory inconceivable, "crown of righteous- 
ness" — purchased by the righteousness of the Redeemer 
— this illustrates its security and value. It is also a pub- 
lic testimony, on the part of God, in honor of his saints. 
It is bestowed also by a righteous Judge. The reward 
is unimpeached and unimpeachable. 

This crown is "laid up against the day of Christ's 
appearing." This imports that it is secure to the Chris- 
tian, as God's covenant faithfulness, and the Mediator's 
grace and power can make. Other riches may pass away ; 
this is always in safe-keeping, and will be bestowed on 
"the day of Christ." The full measure of glory will 
then be awarded. Blessed is the dying Christian who 
looks behind him and sees the wilderness passed over ; 
who looks before him and is entranced with visions of im- 
mortality. 



PASSING THROUGH THE VALLEY. 

J. R. MACDUFF, D.D. 
Tea, though 1 pass through the valley, &c. — Ps. xxiii : 4. 
r T^HERE is no more familiar verse in scripture than 
this. No Bible figure has made a more lasting and 
indelible impression. We do not know what spot sug- 
gested to David the world-wide emblem. How many 
tears has this one verse dried. How many eyes have 
gazed on this valley, radiant with His presence and com- 
panionship. We must soon tread it. Who shall be our 
guide ? Every hour 3000 pilgrims enter it. 

I. The valley. Death is a gloomy experience, even 
to the believer. Death, as the wages of sin, even to the 
Christian, is an enemy. It is a solemn thing. But 
while the believer, as a child of our common nature, in- 



192 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

stinctively recoils from death, as a child of God he can 
say, "I will fear no evil." It is only to him the 
" shadow " of death. The substance is taken away. 
The king of terrors is a vanquished enemy. Christ by 
dying took the sting from death. In prophecy he ex- 
olaimed, "I will redeem thee, &c." He has flooded the 
valley with light. "Abolished death" — the death of 
the body is of little account. 

II. The Presence. " Thou." Another element of 
support in passing through the valley. The curse is 
removed, and a real companionship enjoyed. Thousands 
have testified as they entered, to the felt nearness of the 
Saviour. It is a Peniel. Secure His presence in the 
wilderness and He will be with you in Jordan. "Thou 
art with me" now, and will be then. " Thou" "He that 
goeth before" his sheep. He has trodden the valley 
before them — He went "alone" — sanctified the valley 
— left in it the print of his steps and now from the 
throne says, "Fear not ! I am He that liveth and was 
dead !" 

III. The two-fold support. Eastern shepherds have 
two staves, one for counting the sheep, the other, with a 
crook for rescuing, &c, them. These denote the rod 
of Faith, and the staff of Promises. Faith smites the 
typical Jordan in this valley and the believer passes 
over. The staff enables us to find sure footing and in 
safety to reach the opposite bank. God's promises en- 
sure safety. These two props comfort David in life 
and will in death. " They comfort me." They did not 
fail him. Hear his last words. "He hath made with 
me, &c." God is still faithful, who has promised. 

Ponder your personal interest in this subject. The 
infant, child, youth, &c. 

Connect the valley with heaven to which it leads. It 
is "a door of hope." Death, and what is after death, 



MIDDLE AGE. 193 



FAITHFULNESS AND ITS REWAED. 

CHAKLES HODGE, D.D. 
Well done good and faithful servant, &c. — Matt, xxv : 21. 
T The person described. 

1. The word good is used in manifold senses, but 
they all fall under two heads — that is good which is 
what God designed it to be, having the qualities and 
attributes which fit it for its appointed sphere, but good, 
means also suitable, agreeable, useful or beneficent — thus 
we say a good tree, &c. That is good which does good. 
In the absolute sense of the word, God only is good — 
good in Himself, and the source of all good in others. 
A man is good who is measurably in himself what he 
ought to be and who does good to others. He has not 
self for his object, but sacrifices self for the good of his 
fellow men. Some are good, God ward rather than man- 
ward. They are not centres whence good radiates. 
Such men may be saved, but as by fire. 

2. Faithful. This is a word of wide import. He is 
faithful who exercises faith, is worthy of faith, who 
manifests fidelity in the discharge of duty. Faithful to 
the doctrines of God's word — sincerely believing them, 
openly professing and proclaiming them — faithful to 
principles, ready to declare them, never forsaking them 
for any consideration of expediency. Faithful to obli- 
gations — in the cultivation of talents, employment of 
time, in the avoidance of all unnecessary expenses, and 
in the dispensing of charities. 

3. Servant. This was the favorite designation of the 
apostles. Paul called himself habitually the servant of 
Jesus Christ. He desired to be so regarded, and to live 
in accordance with the relation indicated by the word in 

9 



194 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

its strongest sense. He was the servant of Christ, be- 
cause he was his property — the purchase of his blood. 
The service of Christ comprehended everything — the 
homage of the understanding, the subjection of the 
conscience, the devotion of the heart, and the conduct 
of the life. 

II. The reward. The souls of believers at their 
death enter into the joy of the Lord. Presence with 
the Lord is the believer's heaven. 

1. It is the joy which the Lord Himself possesses, 
Christ and His people are one. This union is threefold, 
a federal union, a vital union and a voluntary conscious 
union by faith. Christ's death is their death, &c. They 
reign with Him, are glorified together. 

2. It is the joy of victory. Victory over death, hell, 
the grave. It is a victory the glorious ' consequences of 
which are to fill immensity and eternity. 

3. It is the joy of perfection. This is the completion 
of the work of redemption for his people. The restor- 
ation of God's image in them is complete. The perfec- 
tion of their whole nature — in perfect knowledge, in 
perfect holiness, a perfection in reconciliation and com- 
munion with God. The soul is filled with his fullness. 
It is filled with God. "It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be, &c." 

II. It is a joy of dominion. Christ has been given 
a name which is above every name. He is exalted above 
all principalities, &c. Of His dominion there is neither 
limit nor end. In this dominion His people share, and 
in the joy of this sovereignty. What this means we do 
not fully know. But it includes more than tongue can 
tell or heart conceive, — glory, honor, immortality. It 
implies the constant beneficent and beatifying exercise 
of all our powers in the promotion of the highest glory 
of our Eedeemer and the highest good of His Kingdom. 



MIDDLE AGE. 195 



CROSSING THE EIVER. 

T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D. 

And the priests that hare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood 
firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan. — Joshua iii: 17. 

YYTASHINGTON crossed the Delaware by boat; 
Xerxes, the Hellespont by an extemporized bridge : 
and the Israelites the Eed Sea by its being divided, in 
which division the Egyptians were drowned. This 
crossing differs from all others, and was without the loss 
of life. The waters piled themselves up in a heap at the 
touch of the priest's feet. Learn : 

I. Obstacles touched vanish. Obstacles that may be 
tremendous in the distance, depart when we advance 
upon and touch them with courage. As in life, so at its 
close. Many are now afraid of the Jordan of death. 
But when you come to it, when your time has come to 
cross it, it will disappear. Christ your Priest with 
bruised feet will go ahead of you. His feet touching the 
waters will cause them to roll away, and you will go 
through dry shod. 

II. The completeness of everything that God does. 
The Jordan when it stopped flowing did not flood its 
banks. It did not leave mud and slime in its bed — it is 
dry. God gives us everything complete, a complete uni- 
verse, a complete Bible, a complete Saviour, a complete 
Jordanic passage. 

III. Between us and everything bright, beautiful and 
useful, there is a river of difficulty that we must cross. 
The grapes of Eschol and the goodly land were beyond 
Jordan — these things are always on the other side. We 
must cross to get them. That which costs nothing is 
worth nothing. We must struggle for what is valuable. 
Stewart, Vanderbilt, Eranklin, Walter Scott, Mansfield, 



196 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

all found it so. Every convert to Jesus finds it so, and 
after every other difficulty has been surmounted, here is the 
river of death. But the Great High Priest goes before, 
the water parts, and as the Christian goes down into the 
bed of the stream he sings, " Oh Death, where is thy 
sting, &c." 

The families of the Israelites passed over altogether. 
What congratulations must have been theirs. But we 
must pass over one by one. But while one foot is in the 
river the other will be in Heaven. It is not a breaking 
down, but a lifting up. 

What comfort in this subject for all the her eft. They 
departed are not submerged, or swamped, but crossed 
over — all crossed over. Alive on the other shore — their 
respiration easier — their sight keener, their aches all gone, 
and an impassible barrier between them and all human and 
Satanic pursuit — safe in Heaven. Would you call them 
back ? Has their struggle not been long enough ? Has 
their journey not been tedious enough ? Have they not 
had sufferings enough ? Would you have them pass the 
Jordan three times ? They will never sin, never grow 
tired, never weep, never die again. 



THE SOLEMNITY OF DEATH. 

C. E. DEEMS, D.D. 
No man dieth unto himself. — Rom. xiv: 7. 
T?VERY man belongs to God. This fact does two 
-^ things. It breaks up our selfishness. No man there- 
fore should turn every stream into the reservoir of his 
own personal interests, and wishes. All should be turned 
towards God, It takes away our solicitudes. If we can- 
not accomplish all we can for ourselves we are doing 



MIDDLE AGE. 197 

something always for another. We are his. Our life is 
safe, and death is secure. This gives a dignity to both 
living and dying. Nothing seems so lonely as death 
looked at from this side. Nothing so cheering looked at 
from the other. No one can have a part in our dying : 
that makes it lonely. "We die unto the Lord : that makes 
it cheering. With this in view let us look at death in 
several aspects. 

I. We have no choice as to the time. We cannot en- 
gage to serve so long and then cease. A Christian need 
not be concerned about the time of his death. He can- 
not make an appointment with death. He who is best 
prepared to die is he who best prepared to live. The 
responsibility of the time of our birth did not devolve 
upon us, nor will the responsibility of the time of our 
death. 

II. We have no choice as to the place. We cannot 
prepare a soft bed for our hour of dying, and say, I will 
come back and lay me here and close my life amid the 
scenes that have been dear to me. The place made may 
be burnt while we are absent. The consideration is im- 
material to the Christian. He is nowhere to which duty 
has not called, and he is where duty has called. He is not 
to consider how near his obedience to that call brings him 
to the death hour. The Lord regulates that. Stand- 
ing in his place at all times, he will be in his place when 
the stroke of death shall come. It may be in Pisgah or 
at the rich man's gate. It will be just where it ought to 
be. WJiere we die, "we die unto the Lord." 

III. We have no choice as to the manner. Accord- 
ing to a man's temperament will be his preferences in 
all things, even in the matter of dying, as to its place and 
method. There seems to be a desire that death be not 
instant. Is it a good desire ? To a Christian in full 
play, instant death is the lightning flash that throws 



198 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

open the gates of immortality and frees from the pains 
and aches of wearisome days and nights. It is not for 
us to dwell on this. God may accomplish more by the 
death-bed of Elisha than by the translation of Elijah. 

But the choice, thank God, is not with us," whether we 
live, 55 etc. The moment the life of the Christian closes, 
giyes his earthly existence greatest capability of benefit- 
ing the race and extending the knowledge of Jesus. He 
has perpetual influence on earth and eyerlasting work 
and happiness in heayen. 



THE COMPENSATIONS OE LIFE AND DEATH. 

A. p. (deax) staxley, d.d. 

To live is Christ, and to die is gain. — Phil. 1: 21. 

TDATJL is writing to his best beloyed converts. He 
opens his heart more fully to them than to any 
others. He looks on death and life, and knows not 
which to choose. He sees the good of both, giyes us his 
reasons for desiring the one and then the other. These 
give us the depth of his tenderness. They reyeal the 
innermost heart. 

I. To die is gain. We have often felt this, as we 
look at the sufferings of this mortal life — its sickness, 
miseries, disappointments, temptations. And we have 
felt it for those that we love, whose lives are fraught with 
so many chances of fatal shipwreck, that they may well 
long for the day, when they shall have done with the 
anxious trials and petty quarrels, baffled hopes and grind- 
ing toil of this harassing world and gone to be with Jesus. 
It is by reflecting on this clear gain, that the mind bows 
itself to the Supreme will, the heart nerves itself to the 
terrible thought of the last dread summons from all we 



MIDDLE AGE. 199 

love and see ; and the soul is committed with such as- 
sured confidence into the hands of its faithful Creator 
and merciful Saviour. These is something greater than 
the gain and rest of death; it is the straggle and victory 
of life. 

II. To live is Christ, Death in a sense is the gate of 
life eternal, but it is in life, this life, that graces must 
be wrought and fashioned that shall prepare the soul for 
the enjoyment of eternal life. Paul preaches, with all his 
heart and soul, the infinite preciousness of life. The 
Christian has the consciousness that in this life is the 
very work and presence of Christ. By leaving our work 
here before the time, we leave His work undone. By 
turning our backs in impatience on this mortal scene, 
we turn them on Him who is in these very struggles and 
sufferings. Every step forward in the cause of good is a 
step nearer to the life of Christ. Life is the state in 
which Christ makes Himself known to us and through 
which we must make ourselves known to Him. He 
sanctified and glorified every stage of it. And at every 
place and in every company He was the same Divine 
Master and Friend. Think then how much we have to 
do for Christ, and like Christ in whatever is left to us 
of life. To rise above ourselves, to lose ourselves in the 
thought of this great work that God has placed before us. 
For the sake of doing this, the apostle would consent to 
li* e, would prefer life with all its sorrows to death with 
all its gain. Death to us may be perfectly desirable, 
but life to us should be perfectly beautiful. 



Thou art my King — 

My King henceforth alone: 

And I, thy servant, Lord, am all thine own. 

Give me thy strength; oh! let thy dwelling be 

In this poor heart that pants, my Lord, for thee! 

— Gerhard I'er&Uegen. 



SOO MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



THE KENDEZVOUS OF HUMANITY. 

JOHN CUMMING, D.D. 

1 know thou wilt bring ?ne to death, &c. — Job xxx : 23. 

■T^HIS was the clear conviction of the patriarch, and it 
should be ours. All around may be uncertain, but 
this is sure. We cannot evade it, however exalted, 
beautiful, wealthy, or strong. 

I. The grounds of his conviction. 

1. What he saiv. The dissolutions of households. 
The graves around him. The memorial tablets. The 
four messengers coming in quick succession announcing 
the destruction of his possessions and the death of his 
children. Are not similar things seen by us ? 

2. Job's oivn sufferings. He had been smitten with 
sore boils — God had taken him by the neck, &c. So 
with us, disease gives its signals — keepers trembling, 
&c, grey hairs, wrinkles, head and heart ache, &c. 

3. Creation around impressed on him the truth of the 
text. Man cometh forth like a flower, shadow, grass, 
autumn, trees, night, sleep, &c, all types of death ap- 
proaching. 

4. Divine teaching inculcated the same lesson. We 
might suppose there would be no need of this. But im- 
pressions made by death on us are often effaced as 
marks on the sand by the sea. David, aware of this, 
prayed, " make me to know mine end, &c." Moses, 
" Teach us so to number, &c." This teaching should be 
sought by us. It was doubtless by Job. 

II. The immediate dispenser of death. " Thou wilt 
bring me, &c." We are prone to attribute death to 
many causes. Faith will raise its head above all and say, 
"It is -the Lord." Job did not say, the Sabeans that 



MIDDLE AGE. 201 

smote or the whirlwind that swept, &c., but "the Lord 
hath taken away." God gives the commission to death. 
He fixes the time when the stroke shall fall, &c., and 
when the dust shall return, &c. Of this truth Job made 
a personal application. " Thou wilt bring me to death." 
It is thus that we should listen to the statements of 
God's word. There must be a personal appropriation 
of the truth. 

III. The description of the change of which the 
patriarchs was assured, "Death and the house." Death 
is the child of sin, but grace has made it the servant of 
Jesus. The separation of the soul and body, the latter 
to rest in its bed of dust till the resurrection, the former 
to go to its own place. 

The body goes to the "house, &c," the narrow one 
appointed for all living. Into it every other house 
pours its inmates. In it, bitter foes sleep peacefully to- 
gether. It is a dark house. No lamp suspended from 
its ceiling. No light shines into its chamber. It is a 
solitary house. No communion, intercourse — each alike 
unknowing and unknown. It is a silent house. No 
note either of weal or of woe ever escapes a lip. The 
tongue of the eloquent is dumb — the knell of a dissolv- 
ing world will first break the silence. It is an ancient 
house. Its first stone was laid in paradise. Every gen- 
eration since might have clasped hands and sung " what- 
ever we do, wherever we go, we're travelling to the 
grave. " 

This house has its sunlit side. It is not an eternal 
prison house, but a resting place, a sleeping place. 
"Thou wilt call and I will answer thee, &c." If it is 
true that man must die, it is also as true that man shall 
live again. Nature and revelation alike proclaim it. 
The leaves of autumn turn golden as they fall. " This 
corruptible must put on incorruption." 
9* 



202 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

It is not a strange house. Parents and friends have 
occupied it before us. The Lord of life has lain in its 
chambers, perfumed it with his presence, and gave it 
His own consecration — "Come, see the place." The 
loth chapter of 1 Corinthians is its epitaph, and es- 
pecially the words, "Thanks be unto God, &c." Think 
often of this house. See it rising amid the palaces and 
halls and mansions of earth. Prepare for taking your 
place within its walls, and for haying planted at its door 
as your memorial of hope the laurel and the palm. 



GRATITUDE FOR TRIUMPH. 

REV. WM. JAY. 
T7ianTcs be to God which giveth u% the, victory, &c. I Cor. xv : 57. 
HHHERE is something very interesting and poetic in 
this chapter, arising partly from association, and 
partly from the subject. The resurrection is only con- 
sidered here in reference to those who sleep in Jesus. 
How sublime the words immediately preceding our text. 
Let us consider : 

I. The victory. Victory supposes warfare — war- 
fare, enemies. These enemies are sin, the world, Satan, 
death and the grave. We combine the two last, because 
it is scarcely possible to treat them separately, and the 
Apostle mentions them together. He conquers d eath who 
is not and cannot be injured by it. This is the case with 
every Christian. Death is stingless to them. Death 
stung our Surety, and left its sting in Him, so there is 
none for a believer. Sin is the sting of death, that He 
bore in his own body on the tree, and put away sin by 
the sacrifice of Himself. Death comes to the believer so 
changed, so glorious, so beatific, that it is only a falling 



MIDDLE AGE. 203 

asleep in Jesus. It only extends to the body at most — 
and that body rises a better body than lay down — the re- 
surrection body will be an advantage, not a clog to the 
soul. It will be modelled after the body of the Son of 
God. He who has conquered death through Jesus rises 
above the apprehension of it, and realizes all this joy 
and all this blessedness even now. Thanks for the 
victory ! 

II. The acquisition. It is given, "who give th." "We 
gain it, but God gives it. He gives us the capacity, and 
we fight and win through grace. 2. It is dispensed 
through the mediation of the Lord Jesus. In the work 
of our salvation, Jesus as a mediator is never left out. 
There is not a blessing comes to us through any other 
channel. He is all in all. 3. It is gradually exemplified 
and accomplished. It is not said that he will, or has, 
but he " givefli" because it is gradually confirmed and 
experienced. It is carried on through the whole course 
of the believer's life and perfected in death. 

III. The gratitude. If men get gratitude for their 
favors, surely God ought for his salvation. If He were to 
discontinue his favors, in what a state of destitution and 
wretchedness would Ave be found. Gratitude consists in 
the return of a benefit received. Though we cannot 
make an adequate return to God, we ought to make a 
suitable return. Gratitude will appear in our ashing, 
"What shall we render, &c.," in the sentiments of the 
mind, in the disposition of the heart, in the language of 
the lip, and in the language of the life. The best grati- 
tude is shown in the degree and quality of the fruit we 
bear. 

As a stimulus to gratitude, dwell upon the blessings 
themselves ; get an increasing sense of your own un- 
worthiness. A man is thankful in proportion as he is 
humble. Get an assurance of your interest in the blessed- 



204 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

ness of the Lord. "I love the Lord because he hath 
heard, etc." Walk before Him in newness of life. They 
that dwell in the house of the Lord will be still praising 
Him. 



DELIVERANCE FROM THE GRAVE. 

CANOK F. W. FARRAE. 
Tlie creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corrup- 
tion.— Htm. 8: 21. 

nPHE announcement of the angels to the women at the 
sepulcher was the most joyous ever made to human 
ears. Our years, as they increase, remind us our Lord 
died, as we soon must die, and that He put his foot 
upon the skull of death, that he might still the groaning 
of a travailing creation, and take from us all dread of 
the conquered foe. 

I. Death is naturally to be dreaded. Savage nations 
live in constant horror of death. This cannot be won- 
dered at. They know of no world beyond the grave, and 
what would life be without faith in that ? 

II. If there be no resurrection of the dead, infinitely 
pathetic and unspeakably heartrending ivould be the 
phenomena of death itself. " If Christ be not risen, &c." 
Then they also that have fallen asleep in Christ are 
perished. Perished ! what a world of desolate anguish, 
what sighs of unutterable despair, lie hid in that strange 
word ! All good and great have perished and so must we. 
How frightful then to live as we are living in the 
world ! 

III. But, we believe in the resurrection of the dead. 
For the body the same, though glorified, and re-united 
to a soul, though the same yet infinitely enlarged and 
made white in the blood of the Lamb. Yes: " Christ is 



MIDDLE AGE. 205 

risen. " How these words change the whole aspect of 
human life ! Nothing short of this could be our proof 
and pledge that we also shall rise. We are not left to 
dim intimations or vague hopes, or faint analogies, but 
we have a permanent and a firm conviction, a sure and 
certain hope. Look into the Saviour's empty tomb. 
"He is not here : He is risen, as He said." They that 
sleep in all those narrow graves shall wake again, shall 
rise again. Weep not widowed wife, father, orphan boy, 
Thy dead shall live. They shall come forth from the 
power of death and Hades. What a mighty victory ! 
What a giant sporting ! What a trampling of the last 
enemy beneath the feet ! What a hope, what a change 
in the thought of life ! Bravely and happily let us walk 
through the dark valley, for out of it is a door of immor- 
tality that opens on the gardens of heaven and the streams 
of life, where the whole soul is flooded by the sense 
of a newer and grander being, and our tears wiped away 
by God's own hand. This is the Christian's hope truly, 
and herein Christ makes us more than conquerors, more 
than conquerors, for we not only triumph over the 
enemy, but profit by him, wringing out of his curse a 
blessing, out of his prison, a coronation and a home. 
"It is sown in corruption, &c." Let us live in love, in 
humility, in Christ and for Christ. This will make us 
noble and happy in life, this will strengthen us to 
smile at death, this will cause us to live all our days in 
the continual light of these two most marvelous of all 
Christian truths : the resurrection of the body, and 
the immortality of the soul. 



206 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



THE MATCH OF THE GREAT DESTROYER. 

REV. ARCHIBALD G. BROWN. 
Love is strong as death. — Cant, viii: 6. 
T^EATH, like a Goliath, walks up and down our world, 
^^^ challenging some one to enter the lists and compete 
with him. Incarnate Love heard, accepted the challenge, 
fought the battle on death's chosen territory, and won 
the victory. 

I. The power of love. The truth of our text was 
shown: 

1. By Christ- s life. All through it, in the healing of 
diseases and in the raising of the dead, in his determina- 
tion to go to Jerusalem, in his struggle in Gethsemane, 
in his death upon Calvary, it was manifest that His love 
was as strong as death. 

2. His love was as strong as death, when death had 
every advantage. Christ's love was as strong as a linger- 
ing death, life slowly ebbing and fever fiercely burning. 
As a lonely death, the disciples all had forsaken Him, 
mockers only around him. Not one to pity. As a shame- 
ful death — without robes and dying a felon's death. As 
a God-deserted death. No child of God, no believer in 
Jesus ever experienced that — but Jesus cried "My God, 
My God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" Love is strong- 
er than death in its conquering power. Death can do a 
great deal, but he cannot touch the will nor lay hold of 
the affection, nor destroy the believer's joy, nor stop his 
song, but love can carry the whole man captive. Love 
is stronger than death in its retaining power. Death 
can only claim the sleeping dust for a time, but love 
holds that dust still as its own, and on the resurrection 
morning, death will have to yield its prey at the call of 



MIDDLE AGE. 207 

all-powerful love. Love is stronger than death in its 
purifying power. Death does not purify ; it has no 
power to alter character — it reduces the body to cor- 
ruption, but love kisses man's sin away, his hatred and 
impurity and temper out of him, turns a hell into a 
heaven, a vulture into a dove, a lion into a lamb. Love 
is triumphant over death in all particulars. Love 
changes the vile body and makes it like unto Christ's 
glorious body. 

II. The prayer of this love. " Set me as a seal." 

Christ requests us to do for Him what He has done 
for us. He bears the name of every believer on his heart 
and on his arm. He covets a place in the heart. Queen 
Mary said when she was dying, that Calais would be 
found written upon her heart. Christ asks his name to 
be written there, never to be erased. Prosperity would 
erase it. Domestic love would erase it, troubles would 
erase it. Let it remain there for ever. 

Christ covets a place on your aeii, where everybody 
can see it. Sailors sometimes tattoo the name of their 
ship upon their arm. Let Christ's name be upon your 
arm, where all can read it. So live, act, work that no- 
body can come in contact with you without saying. 
" There is the Master's spirit in this man. His name is 
upon his very arm. His every-day work is consecrated 
to the Saviour." 

Christ offers this all-conquering love to every one 
who will accept it as a free gift. 

Death is strong enough to crush us, and we have to 
meet that foe at last. Let us fly to that which is even 
stronger than death. Love can conquer us. It is 
stronger than the grave, for it will retain its hold of us 
while there and through eternity besides. 



208 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



NO VICTORY WITHOUT A BATTLE. 

MOKGAST DIX, D.D. 

Lei me die the death oftlie righteous, &c. — Num. xxiii: 10. 

'T^HE last best gift of God in this world is desired by 
one of the worst and most corrupt of men. The 
desire of the heart and the manner of life can thus be 
at variance — an awful contrast between the wish and the 
act. Men are foolish enough to think that they can 
have what God promises without doing what God com- 
mands — have the victory without the battle. There is 
much of Balaam's wish still in the world — God in 
Balaam's death set his seal on all such contradictions as 
Balaam's life, and a righteous death following. 

I. No man ought to expect to come to a good death 
who will not lead a good life. The world is not govern- 
ed by chance, fate or caprice, but by the just and equit- 
able laws of a Righteous Ruler. There is a unity in 
the various parts of God's world. "Men do not gather 
grapes of thorns, &c." If they could, every thing would 
be in confusion. We should not know what to expect. 
But there is unity and harmony in the workings of 
God's laws in nature, providence and grace. No new 
law in this respect has come in under the Gospel. We 
cannot speak of death-bed repentances with too great 
reserve. These repentances occur when the power of 
sinning forsakes the man, the man may not have for- 
saken his desire to sin. The Gospel holds out no hope 
to delay. God promises pardon to the penitent, but not 
a to-morrow to the procrastinator. The dying thief's case 
only adds weight to our argument. Common sense and 
God's word unite in the establishment of our proposi- 



MIDDLE AGE. 209 

tion and the familiar words of the poet sums it up. 
Ps. xxxvii : "Mark the perfect man, &c." 

II. No wishes, however earnest, do of necessity bring 
with them the thing wished for. Balaam's end shows 
this. It Avould be a reversal of all that God and con- 
science show about causes and effects in the realm of our 
spiritual life. See how things are going — what keeps 
society healthy and sound — the ravages of "the famine 
of the world." How unthinkingly men lie down and die 
and survivors speak of them as safe. Go away without 
any preparation and yet with an amazing confidence 
that all shall hereafter be well. Listen to people talk 
about sinners after death as if pain was over. They 
ignore future punishment. Are there not tivo worlds 
beyond ? It is not Christian doctrine to speak otherwise 
— but a delusion — the wish elevated into a creed. 
Universal salvation rests only on a wish, and this comes 
from that other wish, to have all the world can give 
now, and all that heaven can give us hereafter. On this 
wish rests all modern scepticism. But if wishing what 
we want is not effectual as to the things of this life 
why should it be in the things of the life to come ? 
Jude warns us not to fall into the error of Balaam. We 
must perform what has to be done to get the things 
craved. Do not forget what came of Balaam at last. 
The wish led to no good result. He rebelled more and 
more. Men cannot change the order of God's laws. 
Who hath rebelled against them and prospered ? 

It is a good then, to die the death of the righteous, 
to rest like him in dignity and beauty. It is joy with 
peace, a trust in God that rests on strong foundations, 
a heart confiding in a covenant promise which it knows 
to be certain and sure, perfect submission to the will of 
Him who is love, resignation of self, and all in those 
hands which come forth through the gathering darkness 



210 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

— an end like this here and we shall find beyond it a home 
and a portion for ever. 



THE PLACE OF SACKED DEPOSIT. 

KEV. CANOK H. MELVILL. 
Behold the place where they laid Him. Mark xvi : 6. 
r T^HESE words were addressed to the Marys, who 
visited the sepulcher on the Kesurrection morning. 
Their devotedness put to shame the stronger sex. Their 
love had its reward. Angels announced first to them 
the best tidings ever proclaimed to mortal ears. The 
resurrection of Jesus and the empty sepulcher. 

I. The information given to the women. "Be not af- 
frighted, &c." 

1. The address is an acknowledgment of their 
devotedness. "Jesus of Nazareth," that was the name 
of contempt. They were seeking Him. They loved 
Him while living, and they love Him when dead, though 
He had been crucified between two thieves. We must 
not turn away from Christ in his humility. The cross 
is the source of all hope and must be clung to with 
adoring piety — for there only can we be comforted with 
the words, "Be not affrighted." 

2. The address gives information as to the disap- 
pearance of OhristVbody. The angels would have them 
see the empty sepulcher, as if that sight were enough to 
convince of the certainty of Christ's resurrection. So 
it was. His disciples were too timid to attempt the re- 
moval, and his enemies were determined to hold the 
dead body in their grasp. The sight of the empty place 
should therefore be sufficient evidence of Christ's resur- 
rection. 



MIDDLE AGE. 211 

Let us also "behold the place," gaze on the con- 
secrated spot and gather in the wonders with which it 
is haunted. It is the scene of the mightiest prodigy 
ever known on earth. There the dead stirred itself, the 
inanimate Being sprung by his own volition into life. 
Behold, and acknowledge the Divinity of Christ. " Be- 
hold the place;" in being emptied, earth and sea may be 
said to have given up their dead — Christ was the 
representative of the countless myriads of human 
kind. Behold the change effected by the Eedeemer for 
his followers — the grave, instead of being the home of 
all that is hideous and revolting, has an angel for its 
tenant, rich odors for its perfume. The grave has be- 
come a bed and death a sleep to those who put faith in 
His name. Behold it in your tears and sorrow, not as 
those who have no hope — in your hopes, that you may 
look for glorious things from your Forerunner. Behold 
it, ye who care little for the soul and eternity, and 
think if Christ can be neglected with impunity — flee to 
Him as a Saviour before He appears as an Avenger. 
Patiently inspect the empty sepulcher and learn all its 
lessons. 

IT. The commission with which they were charged. 
These women were abundantly rewarded for their devo- 
tion and love. They became apostles to the apostles 
themselves. Preached first the resurrection to those who 
were to preach it to the ends of the earth. Christ first 
showed his love to those who forsook Him and fled, and 
to Peter especially. These two words, " and Peter," are 
a Gospel in themselves. 

III. The promise. "-He goeth before you into 
Galilee, there shall ye see Him, &c." Galilee was the 
place where he was seen by 500 brethren at once. 
Galilee was the place where he was likely to be generally 
known, where He had been brought up, wrought his first 



212 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

miracle, labored most abundantly. " Galilee of the 
Gentiles/' on the borders of Judea, adjoining heathen 
territories. His meeting the disciples there might be in- 
tended to mark that all men — Gentile as well as Jew — 
had interest in the fact of the resurrection, or that the 
blessings of the new dispensation were not to be restrict- 
ed as were those of the old. 

There is always some place of which it may be said 
to his disciples, "There shall ye see Him," "He goeth 
before you." 

As the Forerunner of His people He has gone within 
the veil, to prepare a place for them, where they shall see 
Him face to face and know as they are known. It is to 
those who love Christ, though yet invisible, that He shall 
hereafter show Himself in his benignity and majesty. 
They shall lie down to rest in a grave, hallowed by hav- 
ing once held the body of Christ, they shall wake up 
" to be like Him, for they shall see Him as He is." 



CHRIST'S DESIRE TO HAVE HIS PEOPLE 
WITH HIM. 

J. M'ELEOY, d.d. 

Father, 1 will that thou also whim thou hast given me, he with me, 

&c. — John xvii: 24. 

HPHESE words form part of a prayer the most wonder- 
ful that ever ascended from this world to the 
throne of God. 

No subject pressed so heavily upon the heart of the 
Saviour as the safety, stability, and comfort of his dis- 
ciples. His anxiety for them seems to have increased as 
he approached the termination of His suffering career. 
In order to manifest the extent and perpetuity of His 



MIDDLE AGE. 213 

love for them, He prays that they may be with Him 
where He is, &c. Let us consider : 

I. What the glory of Christ is. It includes : 1. The 
glory of his person. The true glory of his person was 
in a great measure veiled during his abode on earth. 
There were indeed many traces of perfection in Him far 
surpassing those which belong to mere human nature, 
but it was reserved for the heavenly world to disclose 
the glorious excellencies of His character. There, He is 
revealed as ' ( over all, God blessed for ever." 2. The 
glory of his exaltation. This consists in the dignity to 
which He is raised, and the adoration which He receives 
in the heavenly world. The former is referred to in that 
passage in Ephesians beginning thus, " God hath set 
Him at his own right hand, &c," and the latter in that 
verse in Eevelation, beginning with, " I beheld and heard 
the voice of many angels around the throne, &c." 3. His 
glory is the communicative source of all the blessedness 
which the heavenly inhabitants enjoy. What mind can 
conceive, far less adequately describe, the joy of a soul 
as it spends an eternity amid blessedness and glory like 
this ? 4. The glory which redounds to Him from the 
government of the universe. " All things are put under 
His feet." " Lord of all." What must be their rapture 
as they behold His glory. 

II. The purport of his prayer in relation to it. It 
intimates : 1. That Christ, having performed His cove- 
nant engagements for his people, now claims heaven for 
them. Heaven was due to the Saviour in virtue of 
his obedience and sacrifice, and in this prayer He 
unites his people's claim with his own, and requests 
that they be with him. 2. His strong and unchangeable 
love for his people. He was neither ashamed nor tired 
of his connection with them. His heart was wrapt up 
in the safety and glory of his people. He could no longer 



214 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

be with tliem, and He wanted them to be with Him. 
His love was stronger than death, and will be lasting as 
eternity. 3. To be with Christ in His glory is the con- 
summation of salvation to his people. There are other 
sources of delight to them, but this crowns all— death is 
but an answer to the prayer of the text. 

III. For whom was this prayer offered. They are 
described as those whom the Father had given Him, 
whom the Father had selected in eternity from the rest 
of mankind, and given to Christ to redeem, and to bring- 
to glory as the reward of His humiliation and sufferings. 
All of these, no matter when or where they have lived, 
or may yet live, as they are the reward of his sufferings, 
the purchase of his blood, "the travail of his soul," 
shall assuredly one day be collected around his throne, 
and behold his glory or be made partakers of it. In 
conclusion : 

1. What an important and blessed event to the people 
of God is death when contemplated in the light of this 
subject. A departure from this wor]d of sin and sorrow, 
of suffering and dying, to behold for ever the glory of 
the Saviour in the light and blessedness of heaven — to 
dwell for ever near the Saviour's glorified person — to 
enjoy for ever the beatific vision of G-od, to become the 
associate of angels, and one of the innumerable multi- 
tude of "the spirits of just men made perfect." 

2. What solid ground for resignation and comfort on 
the death of pious relatives and friends does this subject 
present. Nature will feel and Christianity does not for- 
bid sorrow, but when we think on where and how our 
loved ones now are, we cannot but bow in peaceful sub- 
mission to the dispensation that has taken them away* 



MIDDLE AGE. 215 



A PRECIOUS DEATH. 

J. M. HOWARD, D.D. 

Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. 
Ps. cxvi : 15. 

nnHE same event is differently regarded by different 
people. The view we take of an occurrence de- 
pends on our position, on the relations we sustain, on 
our strength or weakness, and above all, on our know- 
ledge or lack of knowledge. The child cannot grasp the 
thoughts of his parents ; the private soldier cannot in- 
terpret the incidents of a battle as the commander can. 
In like manner " God's thoughts are not our thoughts, 
nor his ways our ways." And in no matter is God's 
view more different from ours, than in the matter of 
death. Often when we feel that the bereavement is 
overwhelming, the divine voice is, "It is expedient for 
you." 

The death of a saint, which often wears the aspect 
of so terrible a calamity to us, is always precious in the 
sight of the Lord. And, though we cannot enter into 
God's thoughts, we can conceive of some reasons why 
this is true : — 

I. Death, is the final transformation ; it is the last 
touch of the chisel of the Divine Sculptor. The dis- 
cipline of burden bearing, of pain, of disappointment 
and loss, are all the touches of the divine hand shaping 
the trusting soul for its spiritual destiny. Death is the 
final touch, weaning us from earth, opening our eyes to 
heaven. It is precious, then, as the final transformer. 

II. The death of a saint is precious as the climax of 
usefulness. A good man's words and deeds never have 
such power as when his features are composed and his 



216 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

hands folded in the sleep of death. What an added im- 
portance do we attach to the acts and utterances of 
President Garfield, since his name is enrolled in the list of 
departed patriots. The dying testimony of the martyr 
Stephen subdued and won Saul of Tarsus, whom no 
argument could have won. So every triumphant death 
crowning a faithful life is precious in the sight of God 
because it gives irrestible emphasis to the good done or 
or spoken. The departed's earnest utterances, and 
faithful labors, never had such power to convince and 
move us as they have to day, when we remember that he 
was faithful unto death, when his words and example 
speak to us from another world. 

III. Death is precious in the sight of the Lord be- 
cause it is the door of the saint's entrance into the 
heavenly state. God sympathizes with us, "like as a 
father pitieth his children," at every step in our career. 
Death is the last earthly step, and it is precious because 
it marks the end of toil, and temptation, and danger, 
and the beginning of rest, and peace, and safety. If a 
mother has a boy at sea, the safe arrival of the ship that 
bears him is a precious event. And death is the hour of 
safety after the stormy voyage of life. By it we are 
introduced into the untried realm of blessedness, whose 
joys are too great to enter into the imagination of man. 
Christ desires to have us with him. We are needed, 
and loved, and waited for in heaven. And that event 
which is to mark our entrance into this blessed circle of 
the redeemed, is precious in the sight of the Redeemer. 
These thoughts should be a check on our evil forebodings, 
on our unbelieving fretfulness. If death is precious in 
our Father's sight He will so dispose and overrule this 
dreaded occurrence that it will be for good. And if this 
" King of Terrors " is precious and for good, all the 
lesser train of evils may be met with confidence and joy, 



MIDDLE AGE. 217 

and oar murmurings should be checked. God knoweth 
best and doeth all things well. What is dark to us is 
light to Him. Our faith should enter into God's view 
of life and death as far as human minds can grasp the 
thought of God ; and where we cannot understand, we 
should trust the loving Father, with the joyful certainty 
that "all things work together for good to them that 
love God." 



CHKISTIAN CONSOLATIONS. 

REV. DANIEL MOORE. 
Wherefore comfort one another with tliese words. — 1 Thess. iv : 18. 

HPHESE are the concluding words of a paragraph 
remarkable for its judicious counsels in sorrow and 
pointing out the consolations which the Gospel of Christ 
affords under bereavement. 

I. The removal of the good is a divinely appointed 
event. This world is Christ's world. " The Lord 
reigneth," amidst clouds and darkness — desolation and 
death, amidst complications of mischief and evil, amidst 
solemn and mysterious orderings of His providence. 
The dominion of Christ is over all — over death, and its 
ten thousand gates. "I am He that liveth, &c." The 
outward circumstances referred to in our text suppose 
the removal of those whom earth could least afford to 
part with. But thus, — in every age. Abel, Enoch, 
Josiah, Stephen appeared to us to have been removed 
in the wrong time. It may be a father, husband, patriot, 
minister. We are stunned and silent under the stroke. 
We have no reason to give for these providences. " Be 
still and know that I am God." It may be that the 
prayers offered at such a time because of the afflictions 
10 



218 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

will bring upon us greater blessings that the living could 
have been the means of bringing by a protracted life. 

II. The death of the righteous is in itself a blessed 
thing. It is compared to the taking of rest in sleep. 

1. It is the sleep of the faithful in Christ Jesus. 
They " sleep in Jesus." "In Christ," is frequently 
employed to denote a spiritual union to Him, our accept- 
ance of God's prepared method of reconciliation to Him- 
self by a mediator and our actual dependence in Christ 
in the exercise of a living faith, the result of a divine 
influence on the heart, for pardon, justification and 
eternal life. Death cannot suspend this relation. It 
only gives it its grand realization. Death interrupts 
nothing which we inherit by faith. 

2. It is the sleep of assured and conscious existence in 
the immediate presence of Christ. 

Death is not an eternal sleep. Nor does the soul 
sleep from the period of death, till the time of the resurrec- 
tion. Paul said, after death he would be " with Christ." 
And when Stephen exclaimed, "Lord Jesus, receive my 
spirit," he plainly anticipated immediate happiness in 
the presence of Christ. And the thief fell asleep on 
the cross to open his eyes that day in paradise. 

3. It is the sleep of repose from the toils of life, ac- 
companied with the sweet assurance of the benefits that 
shall follow. 

" Blessed are the dead," &c. Labor is an ordained 
penalty of our fallen condition. Not the labor of the 
husbandman only, but in all the anxieties, strivings and 
weariness connected with every calling. The labors 
also of the Christian life — of keeping the heart right with 
God, of striving against the evil of our corrupt nature, 
of training the affections to be surely fixed where alone 
true joys can be found. There will be no sloth to 
arouse, nor reluctance to subdue, no faintness to fear, 



Middle age. 219 

no declining feet to turn back. The soldier lias hung 
up his arms. The pilgrim has laid aside his staff. 

III. "Their works follow them." They are not unpro- 
ductive or without their harvest. How much good they 
are permitted to do they never know. In the very 
humblest spheres of life there are eyes upon them — 
silent observers taking from them their standard of right 
and wrong and borrowing from them unconsciously the 
entire complexion of their moral character. Who can 
tell what good results from one godly life ? 

IV. The certainty of the Resurrection to those who 
sleep in Jesus. God will bring them with Him in the 
day of Christ's appearing. Wherefore does the apostle 
introduce the magnificent recital of the context ? Man- 
ifestly as part of those heavenly consolations which the 
Gospel has provided for bereaved hearts. You may sor- 
row, but not as those who have no hope; for those asleep 
in Jesus are in blessed keeping still. The grave has but 
a sacred loan of their bodies. Truth or poetry can sug- 
gest no more consoling thought than that offered by our 
Lord to Martha : " Thy brother shall raise again." 

Lastly — " So shall they ever he with the Lord." 
Such is the apostle's last consolation. He fastens the 
thoughts of the sorrowing friends on that which shall 
constitute the life and bliss of heaven, viz., the visible 
presence and companionship of the enthroned Eedeemer. 
This will be enough to satisfy the aspirations of an im- 
mortal mind. Christ is there the object of continual 
contemplation, filling the hearts of all who worship at 
his footstool with wonder, love and praise. " Wherefore 
comfort, &c." 



220 MEMORIAL TPJBUTfiS. 



JACOB'S DYING WOKDS. 

ANDREW E. BONAR, D.D. 

I have waited for thy salvation, Lord. — Gen. xlix : 18. 
HPHIS is one of the sentences in God's word, well 

adapted to arrest the unconcerned and careless. He 
who uttered them had many trials, and had always been 
upheld by an Almighty hand. Now the evening had 
come when he must leave the world, and after he has 
described the terror of this future experience to his 
children, he makes the announcement of our text, which 
may be considered as Jacob's dying testimony in favor 
of religion, and as expressive of the triumph of his faith 
amidst the infirmities that cleaved to him. 

I. The believer can use the language of the text, be- 
cause, lie will be put in possession, at death, of a glorious 
inheritance, — a future good not yet attained. The term 
salvation here, denotes that emancipation or freedom 
from "the body of this death," after which the Christian 
has learned to aspire. Long had Jacob reposed by faith 
on one who should " redeem Israel from iniquity," a 
result of which was that Jacob had been taught and 
enabled to live as a " stranger and pilgrim on the earth," 
and look forward to a place of perfect purity and rest. 
Jacob could look forward to such a state with expecta- 
tion and desire where he could rest like a wearied child 

, sinking to slumber. He was now almost on the thresh- 
old of the Father's house, and had a desire to depart. 

II. The words imply Jacob's willingness to leave his 
choicest earthly comforts. He was dying in the midst of 
those to whom his soul was firmly attached. His sons 
were near to hear his parting words and receive his clos- 
ing admonitions. His wants were ministered toby care- 



MIDDLE AGE. 221 

ful loving hands. His wishes were gratified. He had 
learned to look beyond the dim and bounded present to 
the regions of eternal day. His latter days had been 
spent in a pleasant fruitful spot, but he remembered 
that this was not his rest. He looked for a better 
heritage where there was no vicissitude, no idolatry, and 
where he would be provided for by G-od himself. 

III. These words were spoken in the assured belief 
that the trials and sorrow of life would soon be past. 

The lot of man is one of toil and sorrow. But 
there is nothiDg in affliction by itself, if unaccompanied 
by piety, to make it a minister of G-od. It was otherwise 
with Jacob. Trials had softened a heart naturally less 
impressible. Over the divisions of his family and the 
declining flame of piety Jacob had mourned — and now 
that his warfare is accomplished and his work done, the 
veteran saint who has deplored the' evils he has been 
called to endure with true hopefulness of spirit says, " I 
have waited for thy salvation, Lord." Jacob was will- 
ing to exchange earth for heaven. In many of its aspects 
this world may seem fascinating. It is, however, but the 
ante-chamber or outer court of Jehovah's palace, where 
the assaults of the evil one shall have ended, the immortal 
spirit have burst the fetters that now restrain it, shall 
mount on eagle's wings, rejoice in perpetual youth and 
where the fullness of eternal day shall be obtained. 

IV. The Christian may feel the force of Jacob's words 
inasmuch as he expects to be favored with the nearer 
vision of, and to hold congenial intercourse with the 
Saviour. 

To look, were that possible, upon one who had given 
up his life for us, to be in the society of one venerable 
because of his goodness, and illustrious because of his 
wisdom, might be expected powerfully to effect and ele- 
vate the soul, and be regarded as a lofty privilege. In 



222 MEM OBI AL TRIBUTES. 

heaven Jesus will be no stranger to his people. He will 
feed His people and lead them to living fountains of 
water. They shall see the King in His beauty when 
they awake — they shall be satisfied with His likeness. 
They will be in His banqueting house, and His banner 
over them will be love. 

The subject teaches us the importance of true reli- 
gion and the blessedness of a good hope through grace, 
such as proceeds from cordial acceptance of the proposals 
of the Gospel, and springs from seeking the friendship 
of Him who has invited the children of men to seek the 
shelter of His loving hand. Many reasons should make 
us think much about, and seek diligently after this sal- 
vation. 

Friendly figures and hands seem to beckon us across 
the Jordan to Canaan, and heaven and earth shall sooner 
pass away than one of the Saviour's promises shall fail. 



THE FINAL BATTLE. 

TV. K. WILLIAMS, D.D. 

There is no discharge in that war. — Ec. viii : 8. 

HPHERE is a great fortress and line of siege com- 
-■- manding every homestead and every individual. 
The pointed musketry in this line each one must face, 
and to which all are walking in one inevitable proces- 
sion. You fall here, I fall there. The rattling 
hail of death is every instant falling. You too must 
die. " It is appointed unto all men once to die." 

I. This battle is an appointment. It is made by an 
All-knowing One of whom there is no cheating— an 
Omnipotent One, whom there is no shunning — an 
Almighty one, whom there is no resisting. No craft, 



MIDDLE AGE. 223 

force, tears, outcries, or affection can baffle the stroke. 
No gold or empire can purchase exemption. To-day the 
capitalist wields his large fortune, to-morrow the grim 
destroyer hands it over to greedy heirs. To-day the 
king rules his myriads of subjects, to-morrow, to-mor- 
row death has tossed the sceptre in another's hand. 
None pillages like death. His victories "carry nothing 
away." None haunts like death. He never loses his 
scent or misses his game. None aims like death with a 
shaft that always strikes. There is no flying, no bribing, 
no pledging, no reasoning, no treating with the enemy. 
"There is no discharge, &c." 

II. The results of this battle are final. If death 
takes away the soul without Christ it is lost. But will 
God permit this ? Why not, if God has explicitly 
warned that "the wicked is driven away in his wicked- 
ness ?" Why not, if "wickedness cannot deliver those 
who given to it ?" Why not, if unpreparedness is the 
individual's own fault ? Why should not the results be 
final, if you have been familiar with the Gospel — lived 
in a land of Bibles and Sabbaths — had warnings of 
Providence and strivings of the Spirit ? What show of 
reason is there in your pleading a discharge from the 
war, when every cemetery, tolling bell, passing hearse, 
ache and ailment warned you that this battle was ap- 
proaching and would be fatal ? Life was given you to 
know God. He has revealed Himself that you might 
know Him. Why have you forborne to know the 
Saviour, to acknowledge his claim, to wear his blessed 
livery, and to give the heart he asked ? Why cling to 
sins and idols, reject the love, peace, and heaven, he 
proffered freely, sincerely, often, now, but as yet, in 
vain ? 

It is a terrible lot, to go down from a land of light 
and revivals, unprepared and unforgiven to eternal sor- 



224 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

row. But that fearful prospect will not induce the pale 
King of Terrors to give a discharge. "If you are not 
prepared/' he might exclaim, "after all this, when would 
you be ? Come with me then as you are. Here is my 
warrant both for body and soul." 

III. This battle may end in victory. In the day of 
opportunity and repentance there is proclaimed One 
mightier than death or hell. He is the Prince of Life 
and Lord of Glory. He came to destroy him that had 
the power of death. He in bringing rescue tasted of 
death, yea not only met the common lot, but bore on 
himself the common and concentrated guilt of our race. 
Doing this he tore the sting from death and to them 
that believe, He is become the author of life, everlasting 
life. 

To them that receive Christ, the war though fierce 
has lost its main terror and is stripped of its perils, 
mortality loses its ghastliness and puts on hopefulness 
and promise. The grave is like the wet, cold March 
day, behind whose gloom lie the treasures of bursting 
spring and the glories of refulgent summer. The light 
afflictions are but for a moment, &c. Death to the saint 
changes many of its offices. If pain walks at his side, 
He is also the queller of strife and the calmer of care. 
No more throbs or sighs, but rest. He is in one sense 
the Destroyer, but in another the Kestorer. He brings 
back, through Christ's victorious grave, the lost innocence 
and peace of Eden. He divides the nearest ties, but also 
re-unites to those who sleep in Jesus. He is the curse 
of the law, but through the blessed one, who magnified 
and satisfied the law, he becomes to the believer in Jesus, 
the end of sin, the gate of Paradise, and the recompense 
of a new, a better and an unending life. 



MIDDLE AGE. 225 



DELIVERANCE FKOM THE FEAR OF DEATH. 

KEY. DANIEL MOORE. 

And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime 
subject to bondage. — Hkb. ii: 15. 

/CHRISTIANITY teaches us how to withstand our 
^ spiritual adversaries in life and to triumph oyer 
them in death. All its doctrines set forth the defeat of 
the last enemy. All its moral discipline tends to pre- 
pare us for its approach. All its promises have respect- 
to the relief and deliverance of " them who through fear 
of death/' etc. 

I. The causes that make the prospect of death a source 
of apprehension, 

1. The instinctive dread we all have of the act of 
dissolution itself. This feeling is universal — caused by 
the natural recoil of flesh and blood from being resolved 
into their primal elements, from the superstitions con- 
nected with death — from the thoughts of the last fare- 
well — of the sights that shall greet them and the hand 
that shall lay hold of them first, after crossing the in- 
visible borders. 

2. The physical accompaniments of approaching 
death. We are afraid of our supports failing us in that 
moment of moments. Afraid of Satan making that his 
chosen hour for attacking us. 

3. We are afraid of the moral origin of death. Death 
we know is a retribution or penal thing. Conscience is 
affrighted at the penalties it feels to deserve. It is an 
effect and punishment upon transgression. It is the im- 
planted feeling of our nature, that death is the com- 
missioned magistrate of heaven come to reckon with us 

10* 



226 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

for our sins that makes his presence gloomy, his sting 
formidable, and his night dark. 

II. Considerations calculated to alleviate this great 
fear of our nature. 

1. The first alleviation is derived, according to the 
apostle, from the incarnation and death of Christ. Heb. 
2, 14, 16, 9. 

The incarnation and death of Christ were, we see, in- 
dispensable to Christ's mediation. Justice required that 
the offending nature and the atoning nature " should be 
all of one," if He would taste our cup, destroy our 
foe, dissipate our fears and loose our bonds. He must 
die — die as an atonement for sin which was death's sting, 
and thus magnify the law which was his strength and 
plea. Christ satisfied the law — obeyed its precepts, sat- 
isfied its demand, and " now there is no condemnation," 
etc. 

2. Another alleviation is found in Christ's absolute 
and boundless control over all the issues of life and death. 

Christ orders the time of our departure ; disposes all 
the circumstances of our death, and guides the spirit in 
its flight. He holds the keys. The departure of our 
immortal spirit from one world to another, is under his 
own control. He determines the hour, opens the gate, 
stands sentinel at the bridge, and says, as it were, 
" Father, the hour is come." 

3. Another alleviation is that Christ introduces us 
into the immediate presence of Christ. He stands at the 
opposite shore of the river of death to receive us, con- 
ducts us through the realms of the unseen world and in- 
troduces us to his Father's house. The dying spirit can- 
not vanish into a world where Christ is not. It is with 
Him. 

III. To get the comfort of these considerations we 
must exercise a lively faith in Christ. This is the life of 



MIDDLE AGE. 227 

religion — we must interpose its ample shield before all 
the assaults of the enemy. Faith should especially fix on 
that spiritual alliance which exists between Christ and 
his people. They are one. Xo condemnation in Him. 
Fall asleep in Him. 

2. We must diligently cultivate all those tempers and 
dispositions that belong to a godly life. The fear of 
death was meant to be a salutary fear. It was meant as 
a motive to live godly — for only in that way can we ex- 
pect to have death's fear taken away. 

3. We must guard against spiritual declension and 
decay. Eelapses into sin, grievingsof the spirit, coldness 
of love, etc., these serve to intensify the natural fear of 
death and hold us in bondage. 

4. We must be much in preparation for our great 
change. Live in habitual view and contemplation of an 
unseen existence. We should get familiar with argu- 
ments to be used on a sudden emergency. Paul's dying 
fortitude rested on the strength of past successes. Satan 
dreads trophies more than weapons. 

5. Keep in full view the fulfillment of those immor- 
tal hopes which lie beyond the grave. " Go thy way till 
the end be, etc.," and they are permitted to hear " a 
loud voice saying in heaven," etc. Eev. 12, 10. 



THE BELIEVER'S FAREWELL WORDS. 

JOHN HALL, D.D. NEW YORK. 

1 die : and God will surely visit you. — Gen. 50: 24 

TOSEPH closed his nearly blameless life with this 

** communication to the band of brothers. Joseph 

shared the hope of his fathers ; counted confidently 

upon Canaan being given to the race, and exacted a 



228 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

pledge from his brethren that his bones should accompany 
those who went to take possession. 

The last words of eminent men have a universal 
interest, and pass from lip to lip among Christians. 
Such words have a peculiar charm, and have a special 
significance. Earth is less potent, many impressions are 
rectified. The common interests of life seem trifling. 
The most momentous interests of their cases are brought 
out, and dying, say with Joseph, " 1" die, &c." Notice: 

I. The two-fold effect of death. 

1. It separates believers from their friends. The 
body remains with them. But they go away, It is but 
the envelo23e torn open, the letter is elsewhere. The body 
did not constitute the person. Between us and the real 
life a great gulf is fixed, impassable to us while we are in 
the body. We cannot reach them with our endearments 
or services, nor can we receive from them any more. 

2. Death reunites believers to those who have gone be- 
fore them. They have compensation for the painof parting. 
This is soon swallowed up in the joy of re-union. The 
mother will meet her babes. Joseph never more be 
parted from his father, &c. This is not unworthy of 
our notice. The grave has to many an aspect of awful 
solitude. But our friends are not there, but gone to 
join "the spirits of the just made, &c." They are parted 
from us, but how dear, noble and numerous is the com- 
pany into which they have entered ! 

II. The two-fold assurance of a dying believer. 

1. "I die," said Joseph. That is felt to be sure to every 
believer. The word had all along reminded him of this, 
life-long observation confirmed the intimation, every power 
of body emphasized the notice. The sense of decaying 
power, perchance the agony endured, the sensible decline 
of all the powers, assure the believer that the end is 
near. 



MIDDLE AGE. 220 

2. The assurance respecting the believers who remain 
behind. "The Lord will visit you." In Joseph's case 
there was an explicit promise from the Lord. But is there 
not a promise in the Bible somewhere, for all believers, 
in all conditions ? "I die, but God will surely visit," 
a departing husband may say to his wife, for "I 
die, &c.;" a father may say to his children for, &c. ; 
a minister may say to his congregation, for, &c, 
"I am with you always," &c. And so in all the 
varying conditions of saints. God is in them all a 
" very present help." Faith enables one to give this 
assurance. What is faith ? Joseph's case may instruct 
us. He merely believed what God said — a definite word 
of the Lord. Joseph had his eye on the promise of the 
Lord. Believers have their promised land, the land of re- 
union, of peace, the happy land, the land of uprightness. 

III. Departing believers have a double claim on sur- 
viving friends. 

1. Tliey are entitled to continued affection. They do 
not cease to be ours. They are now more worthy of love 
than ever they were before. Their bodies will ' ' make a 
group of bonnie dust," as Halyburton puts it — when 
showing how Christ keeps even the bodies of his people. 

2. They have a right to grateful remembrance. The 
dear memorial, the unostentatious monument, the be- 
fitting memoir in notable cases — are as they ought to be. 
" The righteous shall be held in everlasting remem- 
brance." 

3. We owe them imitation. It is the sweetest tribute. 
It is the most fitting homage we can bring them. We 
should put on their armor and take their places among 
the Lord's sacramental host. 

4. Joseph exacted a pledge from his brethren, viz., 
that they should bear away his bones to the sacred soil ! 
It was to show his faith, and keep alive the hope 



230 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

among the Hebrew seed. And there are promises that 
the dying may claim from us. Are there not some 
among us who have pledged. Have you redeemed it ? 
Are your eyes and steps heavenward ? 
Only two things remain to be said. 

1. All shall die. Your friends — beloved ones — your 
idols shall die. To whom will you then look ? You 
shall die. Have you comfort in Christ ? Can you give 
comfort to others ? 

2. Believer, there is "one" never dies. He liveth for 
ever more, hath the keys, &c. He is a stay and support 
to his people, &c. He is at the right of the throne, 
"standing ;" because active in their behalf, &c. Waits 
to receive and welcome them, and in Him and with Him 
they live for evermore. 



THE DEATHDAY BETTER THAN THE 
BIRTHDAY. 

KEV. C. H. SPUEGEON. 

A good name is better than precious ointment, and tlie day of death 
than the day of one's birth. Eccles. vii: 1. 

HPHE latter portion of this verse is true only of those 
who have a good name — a name written on the 
LamVs Book of Life — written on the very heart of Jesus 
as the names of the tribes of Israel of old were inscribed 
on the High Priest's breast-plate, written on the palms 
of Jesus' hands ; those have a good character and are 
known by the sweet savor of their lives. Of these our 
text is true, for : 

I. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning 
thereof. " Welcome, little stranger," is the greeting at 



MIDDLE AGE. 231 

birth — welcome to what ? It may be to poverty and an 
unholy home, to a troop of infantile diseases, to pains 
from within, and probably to neglect from without. 

The believer's deathday — the time of triumph and 
victory, is better than this. Birth is the beginning of a 
journey ; death is the ending of the weary march to our 
Father's house above. Again, about the birthday hangs 
an uncertainty. Children are blessings, but we cannot 
tell what will become of them when they grow up and 
come under the influence of evil — they may be useful 
and honorable, or dissolute and degraded. But every- 
thing is certain about the saint's deathday. When a 
child is born we know he is born to sorrow, but when a 
saint dies, we know he is done with sorrow and pain. 
Write, therefore, the death-date above the life-date on the 
headstone. 

II. The believer's deathday is better than all his 
happy days. What are his happy days ? The day of his 
coming of age — he is a man, and an estate may be com- 
ing to him. This is a day of great festivity — all around 
may be called to rejoice with him. But on the death- 
day of a believer, he comes of age and enters upon his 
heavenly estate. What a jubilee that will be. The day 
of his marriage. Who does not rejoice, what cold heart 
does not beat with joy on that day ? But on the death- 
day we shall move fully into the joy of our Lord, into that 
blessed marriage union which is established between Him 
and us, into that guest chamber where the feast will be 
spread, and we shall await the Marriage Supper of the 
Lamb. Day of gain. When some sudden windfall en- 
larges their capital, or multiplies the profit. But there 
is no gain like that of departure to the Father from a 
world of trouble to a land of triumph. A day of honor 
— when promoted in office, or receiving the applause of 
men. But what a day of honor to be carried by angels 



232 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

into Abraham's bosom — heirs of God, joint heirs with 
Christ. Days of health are happy days. But what health 
can equal the perfect wholeness of a spirit upon whom 
the Physician has displayed his utmost skill — clean, re- 
covered, and where the inhabitant shall no more say, " I 
am sick." Happy days of social friendship, when hearts 
warm with hallowed intercourse with a friend, or in the 
midst of one's family. But no day of social enjoyment 
can match the day of death. What troops of blessed 
ones shall meet us ! What priceless friends over yonder ! 
What family greetings there will be ! Oh, the bliss of 
meeting with the Lord ! Those who are truly related 
to us in the bonds of everlasting life shall be there. 
Natural kinship has ended, spiritual relationship lasts 
and survives. 

III. Better than his holy days. The day of conver- 
sion. Never to be forgotten when the heart began to 
beat with spiritual life, and the hand grasped the Lord, 
and the eyes saw his beauty. But what will it be to see 
him face to face ? The Sabbath day. Precious and dear 
are the Lord's days — sweet rests of love — blessed days. 
But death gives us an eternal Sabbath, " where congre- 
gation, &c." Communion days. How sweet to sit at 
the Lord's table with his memorial in hand, and to think 
of what He has done, is doing, and has promised. What 
is that to communing with Him in Paradise. Bless the 
Lord for every one of the happy days — but heaven's days 
will be better. There we shall know each other better — 
more delight, in magnifying the name of Jesus. Our 
company shall be better — perfect company, and we shall 
then be at home. 

TV. Better than the whole of his days put together. 
All his days here are dying days. Death is the end of 
dying. Life is conflict — death is victory. Life is full of 
sorrow, death ends that. Life is longing, death possessing. 



MIDDLE AGE. 233 

It will be the day of our cure. We shall carry diseases till 
the last Physician comes, but his touch cures all. Death 
will be the cure of old age. Then renew youth like the 
eagles. Death will be the loss of all losses. Death, the 
last enemy, is the death of every enemy. It is the begin- 
ning of our lest days. The dawning of heaven's days is 
often delightful to the dying. Words of wondrous im- 
port are often spoken by dying ones — it was the bliss of 
dying. Beginning the day on earth, closing it with loved 
ones, angels, and G-od in heaven. Oh ! the eventide of 
that day ! and that day without end ! 

Only mind you do not miss the way to get there. 
Turn to the right, by the Cross, and keep straight on. 



A EOYAL ALARMIST. 

EEV. B. W. WILLIAMS. 
The King of Terrors. — Job xviii : 14. 
^HIS is Bildad's description of death. This assertion 
of the Shuhite is : 
I. A fact. Death is a king. Death simply in itself 
is no more than a cessation of life or a termination of 
being in a certain mode of existence. But it has been 
the universal custom of mankind to personify it ; and 
the sacred writers, accommodating themselves to the lan- 
guage and apprehension of mortals, represent principles 
and feelings under sensible forms and as real characters. 
Thus in apostolic phrase "Death reigns." And while 
he reigns as a king, he enslaves as a tyrant. Where on 
earth shall we find an empire so ancient, with subjects 
so numerous, a vassalage so abject, and a territory so 
large ? Why all this ? Though by the original sin- of 
our first parents, death gained a being and usurped a 



234 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

throne, yet he became formidable or terrible only through 
personal transgressions. All the paraphernalia of pun- 
ishment are only terrible to delinquents. A serpent is 
always an unsightly object, but it is the poison of its 
sting that renders it alarming. The sting of death is 
sin — sin, actual, personal, felt : and "all have sinned," 
hence the universal application of the text. But the 
terrors of the rod of this sceptered king, are but a 
small part of "the terrors of the Almighty," who per- 
mits him to act as the officer of His justice. 

II. The qualification of this fact. 

He need not be a "king of terrors." 

1. There are those to whom death has, or ought to 
have NO real terror. There is a great difference often 
between the privilege and attainment of the Christian, 
between what he might be and what he really is. To 
believers in Jesus, death should have no terror, and 
yet through fear of death they are all their lifetime sub- 
ject to bondage. Those who have fled to Him, need 
not trouble. Their souls cannot die when they have 
committed them to Him, of whom it is said that, " He 
ever liveth." Nor should they fear as to their bodies, 
since these are united to Christ, even in the grave. Why 
then should not the children of Zion be joyful in their 
King? 

2. There are those whom terrors should exceedingly 
affright, though perhaps they do not heed them now. 

There have been some who have jested in the 
presence of this king of terrors, but this does not prove 
that terror does not accompany and succeed this king to 
such. Nor can we marvel at any feelings and forebodings 
among those who sec death coming with " terrors as an 
armed man," and have no weapon of resistance, nor 
shelter for retreat, no shields against his fury, no refuge 
from his frown. 



Middle age. 235 

III. The illustration of this fact. 

There are several things which justify the epithet of 
the "king of terrors." 

1. Those of anticipation. Obscurity and darkness, 
uncertainty and error, speculation and surmise are 
frequent sources of disturbance and distraction. Men's 
hearts fail them for fear in looking for those things that 
are coming upon them. They cannot know what death 
is except by experience, and what it is in anticipation 
and imagination gives much of terror to death. 

2. Those of his approach. We cannot say to him 
" Oomest thou peaceably ?" Death in itself comes only 
as a waster, an enemy, a murderer ; one whose har- 
bingers are to seize, whom himself will next destroy. 
His terrors are increased when " We feel the sentence in 
ourselves," when we feel the time has come for us to 
know what he is — to be separated from all earthly things 
and to find that all we have acquired of earth nought, to 
have our very bodies become so loathsome that our dear- 
est ones will say "let me bury my dead out of my sight." 

3. His attendants too are terrible. Death is preceded 
by a multitude of evils, — pains, sorrows, surprise — af- 
flictions of various kinds, all revolting to our nature and 
destructive to our hopes, and all rushing forth to ex- 
ecute death's purpose. 

4. Of death's actual result. The divorcement of soul 
and body seems trying and severe. But of the struggle 
itself we know but little, but the conflict often seems 
fierce and sometimes long. 

5. Its results and consequences. "After death the 
judgment." It was not man's nature, but man's sin that 
introduced death to him. "Death is the wages of sin." 
Hence some of the chief priests of infidelity have, at the 
approach of death, been, of all men, the most affected by 
its " tenors." Nothing that they have can give the 



236 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

troubled conscience rest, resolve its gloomy doubts or 
chase away its guilty fears. 

We cannot express the danger of those who neglect 
the great salvation, and we cannot exceed the description 
which Scripture gives of the terror of death to such. 



N 



HUMANITY'S EMBLEM. 

WILLIAM LAOTELS, D.D., EDINBURGH. 

We all do fade as a leaf. — Isa. lxiv : 6. 

ATURE is an emblem of life ; a pictorial illustration 
of truth. Revelation has truths, nature does not 
teach, but she does not disdain to notice those of nature, 
points men to them and employs them for the purpose of 
illustrating her own higher message. Thus the Bible 
uses the seasons, as in our text. " We all do fade as a 
leaf." 

I. The text asserts the fact — we all must die. 
It is the doom of man, like the leaf, to wither and 
decay and mingle with the dust of earth. All the gen- 
erations of men since Adam have died — only two were 
translated to give an intimation of another life beyond 
the grave. The grave has already received men of all 
ranks, conditions and ages. The decree still remains. 
The grave has not yet said, "It is enough." There is 
room still for the living in that "narrow house" of the 
dead. Room for each of us. Yet the great majority of 
men practically forget it. This is sadder than the fact 
that all must die. " Of men's miraculous mistakes this 
bears the palm ; all men think all men mortal but them- 
selves." Unlike the leaves, men drop away at all seasons, 
one after another — this in part accounts for man's for- 
getfulness of his mortality. It might be in some re- 



MIDDLE AGE. 237 

spects different with him, if like the leaf, he witnessed 
the inhabitants of a nation swept away in a few months. 
But sin practices the deception, and tends to eradicate 
impressions of the solemnity of death and the certainty 
of dissolution as expressed in the text, "We all 
fade, &c." 

II. The truth of the text should influence the mind. 
1. By leading to preparation for death. If the leaf 
be an emblem of our brief life, if the sentence is irrevoc- 
able and unavoidable, "Dust thou art, &c," if it is " ap- 
pointed unto man, &c," we know it ; it is nothing less 
than guilty infatuation, if we neglect to prepare for the 
solemn event. Moreover, if the time of our duration is 
still more uncertain than that of the leaf — if while the 
leaves have their times to fall, "death has all seasons for 
his own " — in doing the work which is necessary to our 
dying peace not a moment should be lost. "Die the 
death of the righteous." 

2. The truth that " we all do fade as a leaf," should 
lead us to moderate our ambition. 

Men are generally anxious to acquire wealth, to attain 
to eminence and to gain the esteem and applause of their 
neighbors. And the feeling is not sinful except when 
cherished in excess, so as to interfere with the influences 
of higher motives and to prevent the pursuit of a higher 
good. But the meanest work performed with a single 
eye to G-od's glory, will be of far more value than all the 
labors of a life, which has wealth or honor or rank for 
its end. "What is Byron the better for having 

" Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump 

Of fame ; drank early, deeply drank, drank draughts 
Which common millions have quenched, then died, 
Of thirst, because there was no more to drink ?" 



238 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

3. This truth should lead us to set our affections on 
heavenly things. 

These things of earth must soon be left : friends, home, 
property, then prepare for and welcome the intimation 
that you can have an "inheritance incorruptible, &c." 
Thank God there is a land where there is no seared leaf 
or tottering frame, where age writes no wrinkles on the 
brow, no grey hairs exist to tell that the summer of life 
is past, where there are no violent separations, no death, 
no sorrow, no pain. The bowers of paradise are always 
green, its sky always bright, its season is always summer. 
He who receives the crown of glory will never lay it 
down, except in adoration at the feet of Him who sits 
upon the throne. The employment of heaven will never 
weary him ; its song will be always new. The triumphal 
palm will never wither in his hand, the golden harp will 
never be out of tune. Nothing will ever choke or nar- 
row that fountain whence life leaps in fullness, or 
stagnate that still expanse where the Good Shepherd 
leads his flock at glory's noon. This inheritance may be 
yours by faith in Christ and a life of holy obedience, and 
there your " leaf shall not wither." 



THE HAPPY MOUENEKS. 

ALEXANDER DICKSON, D.D. 

They departed quickly from the sepulcher with fear and great joy, &c. 
Matt, xxviii : 8. 

THE grave is generally regarded as a gloomy place- 
peculiarly consecrated to grief. We go there in 
silence and slowly. The service at the grave is more 
solemn than any other, and with sadness in our hearts 
and on our countenances, we take the last long look at 



MIDDLE AGE, 239 

the place where the loved one is laid, and turn away 
weeping such tears as only the soul can shed. 

The text tells us of one grave from which the 
mourners went away with " great joy/'' It was the 
Saviour's grave, and the happy mourners " Mary Hag- 
delene and Mary the mother of James and Salome." 
They had gone very early in the morning of the first 
Christian Sabbath to the sepulcher to weep and with 
spices to embalm the dead body of Jesus. But they 
found the stone rolled away and angels there who as- 
sured them that Jesus had risen, &c. The tomb was 
empty, and that is the reason their sorrow was turned in- 
to joy. Fear was mingled with their gladness as if they 
almost doubted if the news was not too good to be true. 

These happy mourners are not alone in their experi- 
ence. Gather up those crumbs of comfort that the Gos- 
pel scatters around the grave of those who sleep in Jesus 
and they will fill your heart with joy. 

I. The Saviour's empty sepulcher is an eloquent 
preacher. Its language is " Thy dead men shall live, 
&c." As the resurrection of Christ was predicted, it 
should have been expected by his friends, but it does not 
seem to have been in all their thoughts ; so that the 
words of the women, announcing His resurrection seemed 
to the apostle as " idle tales/' and Jesus was obliged to 
appear to them again and again to establish his identity. 

II. The resurrection of Christ is more than a pledge, 
it is also a pattern of the resurrection of His people. 
The same body that was born in Bethlehem and died on 
Calvary, rose again. John xx : 27. So the same body 
which we now have we shall have again in the resurrec- 
tion, when Christ shall li change our vile body and make 
it like," &c. 1 Thess. iv : 13, 14, 18. 

III. Meanwhile the bodies of your beloved dead shall 
rest in peace. The grave is not a gloomy prison house since 



240 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Jesus has lain there, but a quiet habitation, the only place 
of perfect rest in this world. To the Saviour it was a 
place of sweet repose, and so it is with the child of God. 
When he conies to the grave his toils are all ended, tears 
all shed and troubles all past. 

IV. The spirits of our departed Christian friends are 
given to God. Just as He was expiring on the cross Jesus 
said, "Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit, 
&c.," and before his body was laid in Joseph's tomb His 
soul was safe in His Father's house. The same is true of 
every saint : before the body is buried the soul has reached 
the realms of glory. Absent from the body it is present 
with the Lord. The souls of believers at their death 
pass immediately to glory. 

V. We ought not to think so much of the grave in 
which the body is laid, as of the glory into which the soul 
has gone. 

It is mainly because we are so slow of heart to believe 
all that our Heavenly Father has told us concerning our 
departed friends, that there is so little sweetness in our 
cup of bereavement. We think only of our great loss, 
of our desolate home, and the very crown of life is 
eclipsed by the coffin and the glory excelling grows dim 
in the shadow of death. We look too much into our own 
broken hearts, when we ought to look up to heaven, at 
the heart bounding there with joys that may not be ex- 
pressed. If we would look at the heavenward side of the 
sepulcher, when the dear dead dust is buried out of sight, 
we would depart from "the sepulcher with fear and 
great joy." 

VI. When our friends are gone our communion is with 
them still. All the while the Saviour's body was in the 
grave, and His soul was in Heaven, He was doubtless 
thinking about His dear disciples, and we know for cer- 
tain that they were thinking about Him. He was in all 



MIDDLE AGE. 241 

their thoughts and on all their tongues, for their com- 
munications were concerning Jesus of Nazareth. And 
some of them were preparing sweet spices for his embalm- 
ment. And blessed be his glorious name, He was so 
anxious to come and see them personally and comfort 
them, that He shortened the three days of his appoint- 
ed sojourn in the grave into six and thirty hours. And 
we believe in the communion of saints in all its length, 
breadth, height, and depth. " We are come unto Mount 
Zion — and to the spirits of just men made perfect. " 

VII. We shall join our blessed friends again in the 
celestial country. When the Saviour was departing with 
His disciples they were very sorrowful and He comforted 
them with the sweet assurance that they should follow 
Him in a little while, John xiii : 26, and with the sweet- 
er assurance that He would come after them, John xiv : 
2, 3. How many pleasant family gatherings there will 
be some day in our Heavenly Father's house of " many 
mansions," and when we arrive they shall come out to 
meet us and greet us with kisses, and hail us to our eternal 
home. " For so an entrance shall be ministered unto 
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus." If so, may we not depart from 
the sepulcher of our blessed dead with great joy ? 



CONSUMMATE HAPPINESS. 

ANDREW E. BONAR, D.D. 
" So shall we ever be with the Lord."—>l Thess. iv; 17. 
r "PHE Scriptures not only give us certain information 
regarding the principles by which the Divine gov- 
ernment is regulated, the duties which man is called upon 
to discharge, and the snares he must avoid, but they also 
11 



242 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

open up a store of consolation, out of which Christians may 
extract comfort in the midst of disquietude and sorrow. 
The pencil of John sets before the believer glowing 
pictures of the New Jerusalem, exhibitions of the glory 
of the Son of Man, fascinating delineations of the "tree 
whose fruits, &c," of the calm windings of the river of 
life, &c, of the white-robed worshipers bending in 
homage before Him whose love is enshrined in their 
hearts. Our text brings before us : 

I, The certainty and perpetuity of the happiness of 
which the ransomed are to be made partakers. 

Hence the felicity of heaven stands in vivid contrast 
with the distresses and uncertainty of earth. The 
schemes which we cherish are liable to disappointment — 
the society with which we mingle is unstable and fluctuat- 
ing, the ideas we entertain are often imperfect and erro- 
neous — there are many subjects involved in almost com- 
plete mystery ; many others with respect to w r hich we 
arrive only at an approximation to the truth. But w T e are 
encouraged to anticipate the arrival of a period when 
disadvantages are to cease, and when we shall enter into 
a nobler, purer, and more illustrious scene. 

Were man destined to lie down for ever in darkness ; 
did no light gleam beyond the sepulcher, and were no 
prospects open of the land that is afar, God would not 
have given such aspirations to his creatures as those 
w r hich possess his soul. These longings — this capacity it 
has for reflecting upon the Infinite and Eternal — the 
sagacity that lay plans and make arrangements for com- 
ing emergencies, the moral sensibility winch the spirit 
is capable of acquiring, and tasting the goodness of the 
Creator, accord with the voice of Scripture, and show 
man to be far more than the short-lived child of earth, 
destined to see corruption and to be hid beneath the 
mould. 



MIDDLE AGE. 243 

Nor can we suppose that existing apparent anomalies 
in the Divine administration are to be left unsolved, that 
seeming inequalities in the procedure of Providence are 
to fail of being rectified, or that the struggles with sense 
and sin, with deformity and vice, the resolute victories 
achieved over "the prince of this world," by the right- 
eous and holy in all ages, are to fail of the recompense 
which Infinite goodness desires to bestow, and which 
Christ has secured by his atonement. 

On this subject many Scripture statements might be 
quoted — but apart from these there is in the inner being 
of man a testimony borne regarding his immortality, 
and admonitions given whereby he is exhorted to rise to 
the full height of his lofty destiny. If so, how egre- 
gious is their folly who act for time alone and neglect 
eternity ? If it is said of Christians that they shall be 
for " ever with the Lord," it is time for all who have 
not given earnest heed to the Gospel, to awake out of 
spiritual apathy, and to make provision for the unseen 
state ; coveting a "'Kingdom which cannot be moved," 
desiring a crown of righteousness which shall never fade 
away. 

II. This happiness is closely connected with the pres- 
ence and fellowship of Jesus Christ. "So shall we be 
ever with the Lord." 

1. This implies that believers after the resurrection 
and the judgment, will be brought into a position near 
to that which is occupied by the Saviour. We are war- 
ranted by the language of Scripture, to suppose that some 
region does exist, or will be formed, where the faithful 
and pious of all ages and countries will be assembled, 
where in the beautiful and expressive language of the- 
Apocalypse, "the Lamb that is in the midst of the throne 
shall feed his people, and shall lead them to living foun- 
tains of waters/' When earthly trials close, unmingled, 



244 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

though, relatively incomplete, happiness commences. 
So soon as " absent from the body," the saints are pres- 
ent with the Lord. They are ushered into the realm of 
spirits, wait in anticipation a farther change — when 
being raised they shall be qualified to meet Him at his 
coming. Then will be fulfilled the statement of our 
text, and that of the Beloved Disciple. " To him that 
overcometh will I grant to sit with me on my 
throne." 

2. Christ's presence with the saints in glory must 
secure their exemption from all evil. 

Here, though their lot is superior to that of others, 
yet they are not exempted from the common afflictions 
of humanity — these make him long to visit that world 
where the wicked -cease from troubling, &c, where in- 
firmity will cease, the body of sin and death be laid. 
aside, where evil will be no longer present, where no dark 
cloud will gather to hinder the full shining of the Son 
of Righteousness — where they "who have washed their 
robes and made them white, &c./' "shall hunger no 
more, &c." 

3. Christ's presence with his saints constitutes a 
pledge that their powers will be adopted to their new con- 
dition, and that the loftiest sources of enjoyment will be 
opened for their participation. These bodily and mental 
capacities with which man was originally endowed by 
God, were grievously impaired through the entrance of 
sin into the world. But in that blessed world, the 
spirit will be made capable of wondrous discoveries as to 
the works and ways of God, of enraptured contempla- 
tion on the plan of Providence, and out of the riches of 
His goodness, and the boundless treasures of his love, will 
have every desire satisfied, and will have fresh sources of 
delight continually abounding. How decided and full 
must the happiness of the Saint be, when he has taken 



Middle age. 245 

possession of the kingdom prepared for him from the 
beginning of the world, when he " shall be for ever with 
the Lord." 



PREPARATION FOR THE PASSAGE. 

ALEXANDER DICKSON, D.D. 

Prepare your victuals ; for within three days ye shall pass over this 

Jordan. — Joshua i : 11. 

HPHIS was the order given to the children of Israel, 
when they were encamped in their land of Beulah, 
before starting on the last stage of their long journey. 
It was about the middle of April. A magnificent scene 
met the eye in every direction. To the North the great 
plain of Esdraelon, to the South the hill country of 
Judea, before them the walled city of Jericho, and be- 
hind them Nebo and Hor. Here they were reposing 
when the order came to prepare for the passage of the 
river, which still rolled between them and the home of 
their hearts. The Hebrews were a typical people — the 
past is repeated in the present. As they had need of 
special preparation to pass over the Jordan, so we have 
need to make ready for crossing the darker, deeper and 
more dangerous river of death. 

I. How and why should we prepare for dying ? 

Our temporal affairs should be arranged beforehand. 
The victuals of the Israelites consisted of the manna 
and also now probably of the corn and wine and 
oil of the region around. Most of these provisions 
had need of preparation. Even the bread from 
heaven did not come down into their tents all ready for 
the table. It had to be prepared. This suggests that 
our worldly affairs should be properly adjusted against 
the time to die. These are seldom as they ought to be 
when the summons comes, and they often discompose and 



246 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

distress the departing spirit. But the lawyer is often 
seen in the darkened room and the patient's trembling 
hand signing important papers. Before such a time 
arrives, the books should be balanced, the debts paid, 
and the wills written. 

II. There should be a personal interest in Christ, who 
is the antidote of death. The manna was typical of Him 
who said, " I am the bread of life." This bread is soul- 
quickening, soul-strengthening, soul-sustaining, and 
soul-satisfying food. It is by faith alone, that we re- 
ceive and rest upon " Jesus only," as He is freely offered 
to us in the Gospel. A personal interest in Christ is 
therefore the most important thing in preparing to die, 
if we would pass away peacefully and hopefully. He 
that eateth of this bread shall live for ever, even though 
his body turn to dust. 

III. We should have a goodly number of the pro- 
mises, stored away in our hearts and minds. The whole 
Bible is like Him, who is its author and its subject. 
Jesus is the burden of every book, the chief end of every 
chapter, and the substance of all the shadows. But the 
exceeding great and precious promises are the "finest 
of the wheat." They are greater and more precious, than 
we are aware till the set time comes for them to manifest 
their unspeakable power and inestimable \ r alue. They 
are the stone steps by which Christian can pass safely 
through the Slough of Despond, the key which will 
unlock the doors of Doubting Castle, and the lamp whose 
light illuminates all dark valleys. Many of those pro- 
mises were written, as it would seem, expressly for the 
time to die. " When thou passeth through the water, 
I will be with thee, &c." "Fear thou not, for I am with 
thee, &c." These promises so sweet and precious 
should be committed to memory that we may have them 
ready against the great emergency. The eye may then 



MIDDLE AGE. 247 

be too dim to read them and the ear too dull to hear them, 
but if we have them laid up in our heart no tongue can 
tell the greatness of their comforting and sustaining 
power. 

VI. Death should be made the subject of much medita- 
tion. God kept the Israelites encamped in the valley of 
Jordan for nearly a whole year, that their thoughts 
might be often on the passage of that turbulent stream 
and about the good land beyond to which they were go- 
ing. We are halted often on the hither side of Jordan 
for a long time, that we may have time for reflection, 
and a fitting opportunity to make the crossing the theme 
of much meditation. Thus we become so familiar with 
the face of the last enemy that he seems more like a dear 
friend. We are brought to entertain no fears that faith 
will fail or any doubts concerning the promise " as thy 
days, so shall thy strength be." Joseph of Arimathea 
put his sepulcher in his garden, and the frequent sight 
of it helped to make him the good and just and devoted 
Christian that he was. 

But why should we make these necessary pre- 
parations ? 

I. Because death is sure to come. " Ye shall pass over 
this Jordan. " The Israelites might have evaded the pas- 
sage of that stream there by passing North to its source ; 
but it was God's plan, that they should cross the Jordan 
at the time when, and at the place where it seemed to be 
impassable. "He led them forth by the right way." 
The universal appointment of death we cannot escape. 
All paths terminate alike in the plain of Jordan. Death is 
rather the debt of sin than of nature, and every man must 
pay it. There is no exception, exemption or escape. 

II. Because the time of death is uncertain. The 
time for the ancient people to cross the Jordan was not 
precisely stated. " Within three days ye shall pass over." 



248 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

They did not know exactly when the silver trumpet 
would sound. It might be blown on the third, the sec- 
ond, or the self -same day the order was issued. Nor can 
we tell the exact time of our departure. " Thou hast all 
seasons for thine own, death." 

III. Because the last moment may come soon. 
Though the time for the Israelites to cross the river was 
uncertain, still it was not far distant. It was " within 
three days." It might be the same day the command was 
given to prepare, or the next day, but it could not be fur- 
ther off than the day following. So the moment they 
listened to the command to prepare, they commenced 
their preparation. It would be well for us if we would 
copy their example. " Be ye also ready, &c." " There 
is a but a step between me and death," and the next 
setting down of the foot may be in the chilling stream. 

IV. Because dying will be work enough, without 
having anything else to do. There will be the par ting- 
also from dear friends. You cannot kindle your camp- 
fires in the midst of Jordan, and prepare your food for 
the passage. Prepare now by laying hold of the Saviour's 
strength, and casting yourself entirely on Him, and He 
will do wonders for you in the dying hour. See what 
he did for his own people in Jordan. Josh, iii: 17. 



MIDDLE AGE, 249 

THE PILGRIM'S FAITH AND END. 

KEY. DANIEL MOOKE, M.A. 

These all died in faith . . . and confessed that they were strangers 
and pilgrims on the earth. — Heb. xi : 13. 

A LL the historical facts of the Jewish people were 
~^^ typical, and all the children of faith under the 
Old Testament had an insight into the spiritual purposes 
of God. They were willing to wander for a season in a 
strange land, beeause they were pilgrims hastening on- 
ward to their eternal home. They learned to sit loosely 
to their temporal privileges, because they were strangers 
and pilgrims on the earth. Let us then view : 
I. Life as a pilgrimage. 

1. This idea of life would be suggested by the very 
nature of the human constitution and the relation in 
which we stand to the world around us. Everything 
suggests that this is a passage world for us, and not a 
resting world. There is nothing in it to satisfy the im- 
mortal nature. It can give food, clothing and many 
objects to gratify the desires of the body, but not those 
of the soul. After all that earth can yield, man still feels 
that he is a stranger and pilgrim here. 

2. This idea would be also suggested by life's con- 
stant changeableness and instability. This is no chance 
arrangement. "We are to have so much of good in our 
lot as to enable us to bear the evil, and so much of evil 
commingled with it that our hearts may not be unduly 
set upon the good. A travelller must expect to meet 
here poor entertainment, there sumptuous fare — at one 
time walking in a sunny path, at another under a dark- 
ening sky. In these varied experiences of human life, 
faith finds its exercise and hope is enabled to make its 

11* 



250 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

own bright world — where there is a home for the tired 
spirit, a place where God will make everything plain and 
right to those who were but strangers, &c., here. 

3. The text would suggest to us an infinite and ever- 
lasting existence. He that is a stranger in a country 
has another country which he calls his own — a pilgrim 
has a place, a destination towards which he is hastening. 
This is the leading topic of the apostle's argument here. 
Abraham understood the temporal part of the promise to 
be its inferior part, that with it there was a promise of 
infinitely higher reach, viz. : the promise of eternal life. 
This persuasion had a direct practical influence on his 
conduct. He never made a home of Canaan, built no 
city, &c, but he lived on, a mere dweller in tabernacles, 
as one who might be required to change on the morrow. 
He and the other patriarchs knew that God had prepared 
for them a city, and therefore they lived in the midst of 
the Canaanitish races, strangers and pilgrims on the 
earth. 

II. Let us consider a few practical lessons suggested 
by this view of life. 

1. The duty of contentment — of acquiescence in that 
lot which God has appointed for us — whether it be fixed 
here or there. " Time is short," and the nearer we get 
to home, the less important will all former disappoint- 
ments appear. But we often forget we are but pilgrims 
here. 

2. In such a view of life reference should be constant- 
ly had to Divine guidance and direction. We are not 
"pilgrims" only, but "strangers." A stranger in a 
strange land does not know his way^ Misled by delusive 
appearances, he may take a way that seemeth right unto 
him, but " the end thereof are the ways of death." He 
may take one path for its smoothness and find it beset 
with perils and hidden snares — another for its shortness 



MIDDLE AGE. 251 

and finds he has gone far out of his way. " The way of 
man is not in himself, &c." This consideration had 
much weight with Old Testament saints. Their choices 
were constantly influenced by a regard to the spiritual 
part of the promise. They went here or there, made or 
refused this alliance according as they believed it brought 
them nearer within the reach of the Divine promises. 
We see in Abraham especially, a practical recognition of 
his pilgrim state — an acknowledgment that he was but a 
stranger, having God's hand and eye to direct him. And 
for safety, peace and happiness this will be found to be 
our safest course too. 

3. The duty of exercising in all things a holy modera- 
tion and sobriety. 

The patriarchs might have lived in tents in Chaldea 
or in palaces in Canaan, but they would do neither, for 
the tents were designed by God to be a standing memo- 
rial, and protest against a worldly spirit, even as Canaan 
itself was to be an emblem of the spiritual and eternal 
state. They kept their tents because they would testify 
to the simplicity of patriarchal character, and witness 
against the pride, covetousness and ostentation too often 
found to accompany a season of prosperity. Thus we 
are to " let our moderation be known unto all men," live 
within such bounds as shall be consistent with a character 
of Christian simplicity and a protest against the worldli- 
ness of the times. We must be " sober/' sober in our 
joys, griefs, gains, and in all the pursuits of life. Whether 
we acknowledge it or not, we are but pilgrims and 
strangers, dwelling as under a perishable gourd, which 
may wither in a night and leave the head which had 
foolishly rejoiced in its shadow uncovered before the 
wrath of God. 

4. Having no continuing city here ; we should seek 
one to come. The patriarchs had no home in Canaan, 



252 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

yet they loved it, because an emblem of the heavenly 
city. It was not because of the fertility of its valleys or 
the beauty of its hills, but because it was typical of the 
rest of the covenant, where G-od had promised to honor, 
meet and bless his people, and associated with all their 
most lofty anticipations of the life of the world to come. 

In like manner, while we are in the world we are not 
to be of it. Hallowed as this world is, as the sphere of 
our probation, the battle-field of victorious saints and 
the temporary home of God's Son, it is yet to be regard- 
ed as our passage to another and a better country. 
" Arise and depart, this is not your rest," for it is 
marked by vicissitude, disappointment, uncertainty, pol- 
luted by wickedness, injustice, impiety, because your 
heart troubles you, makes this world a scene of constant 
disquietude, and draws away from better thoughts and 
hopes. Seek a better country. Let the spirit aspire after 
a brighter, better home. These patriarchs were per- 
suaded there was such a home. They looked for it, re- 
joiced in it, lived in anticipation of it, and even had, while 
here, a blessed foretaste of the country they were seeking. 

They looked for a city — its builder was Christ. They 
looked for a country — its Lord was Christ. They looked 
for a cleansing from all their pilgrim stains and they 
found it in Christ. They looked for rest from all their 
pilgrim toils and they found it in Christ — the tired 
pilgrim's home, the saint's everlasting rest. 



Let me grow by sun and shower, 

Every moment water me; 
Make me really hour by hour 

More and more conformed to Thee, 
That Thy loving eye may trace, 
Day by day, my growth in grace. 

— F. R. Havergal. 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



OLD AGE. 



FAITHFULNESS CROWNED. 

ROSWELL D. HITCHCOCK, D.D. 

Be thou faithful unto death and 1 will give thee a crown of life. 
—Rev. ii: 10. 

'T^HE age of martyrdom has gone, but this call has a 
■^ voice for all ages and comes to us man by man. " Be 
thou, etc." 

I. The duty enjoined. 

All men have not faith. Some have little, but no one 
enough. Many things tempt our fidelity — comfort, ag- 
grandizement, pleasure, position, property. The eye of 
faith sees a higher world. Nothing should be so much 
dreaded as wrong. 

Faith recognizes the ministry of sorrow. The great 
Psalm of life has deeper tones than those of joy. Our 
path grows more solitary as we advance. In the ranks 
are fewer and the line grows slenderer. Violent diseases 
lie in ambush at every turn and disappointments meet us 
at every step. In all we must be faithful. Faith re- 
cognizes the solemnity and sturdiness of duty. That is 
a great, a granite word. Life is charged with great 

[253] 



254 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

duties. To be diligent in saving own's own self, and in 
saving others is the great work of life. 

Faith looks without alarm and continuously toward 
death which terminates all. It is coming to all, we 
know not how, we know not when. It will come surely. 
The call is, be faithful to death. The duty is to be dis- 
charged not by fits and starts, but continuously until the 
call is heard. Steadiness is indispensable to success. 

II. The reward. 

The figure is taken from the laurel crown given at the 
Grecian games. Paul prefered death to life, though he 
was willing to remain. Even the Pagan said that the 
day of death was the birthday into eternal life. The 
Thracians gave tears to the birth couch, but triumph to 
the grave. Cicero spake of the glorious day when he 
should depart and join the multitude beyond. Christ 
brought to light these truths, conquered death, and said, 
" This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 



THE HEAVENLY HOPE. 

REV. JAMES PAESONS. 
Tfie hope which is laid up for you in heaven. — Col. i: 5. 
A PRIME question is, whither is my being tending, 
and what shall be its close ? 
I. There is given to man the prospect of future good. 
The apostle speaks about a hope — the expectation of 
future good — of universal operation among men both as 
regards this life and the life to come. God has opened 
a beautiful vista before us, corresponding to our views 
and wishes — mansions, a kingdom, an inheritance, &c. — 
abodes of purity, knowledge, triumph, companionship, 
life and immortality ! We can hope for all this ! 



OLD AGE. 255 

II. Certain requisites are necessary for participating 
in that prospect. Hope is founded on faith, and we 
must believe before we can hope for the enjoyment of 
heaven. 

1. Faith in the declaration of God by which the na- 
ture of these prospects is disclosed. Whatever God has 
revealed must be believed, received and cherished. 

2. Faith in the method of mercy revealed by God as 
the only way by which a participation in these prospects 
can be enjoyed. The apostle speaks of "your faith in 
Christ," ver. 3. This is the way in which the prospects 
of futurity can be brought home to our comfort. " He 
that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life/'' 

III. The prospect of future good, when trusted in, 
rests on the most firm and inviolable security. It is 
"laid up," same word in 27 ver. rendered " appointed." 
It rests, 

1. On the authority of the word of God. It is " the 
hope of eternal life " which God who cannot lie has pro- 
mised. Heb. vi : 18. 

2. The word of God is ratified by the work of the Re- 
deemer. "All the promises of God are yea and amen in 
Christ Jesus." His death as a sacrifice, his resurrection 
as a testimony, and his present residence where he is 
preparing for us, each ratifies God's word. 

IV. These prospects must produce powerful influence 
on the heart, 

1. The hope excites to holiness of life — "Everyone 
that has this hope, &c." 

2. Produces calmness and peace, amid the trials of 
life. "I reckon, &c." 

3. Gives confidence in the approaches of decay and 
dissolution. Martyrs have rejoiced in the flames — this 
light lightens the gloom. It is a good, a lovely, a sweet 
—a hope that maketh not ashamed. Is it my property ? 



256 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



THE GLAD ANNOUNCEMENT. 

GARDINER SPRING, D.D. 
J am t7ie resurrection and the life. — John xi: 25. 
T\^H^T an annunciation to a world of sinners ! What 
tidings to dying men ! 

I. Christ is the resurrection and the life to men as 
sinners. This thought relates to their moral or spiritual 
resurrection. Men are naturally "dead" in trespasses, 
etc. In this sense the world is a vast sepulcher over 
which the Son of man proclaims : i ' I am the resurrec- 
tion," etc. His voice alone can reach these gloomy man- 
sions. By the omnipotent energy of his own spirit he 
asserts his prerogative, and what could not be effected by 
sermon or by prayers, by mercies or by judgments, is as 
readily accomplished as when he said, "Lazarus, come 
forth." 

II. Christ is the resurrection and the life to dying men. 
This thought relates to the resurrection of the body. 
Natural death is the consequence of spiritual. Death has 
extended his empire everywhere on this earth. Will his 
scepter ever be broken or these graves open ? Yes. 
Christ's words are true. The wisdom and philosophy of 
the world have not always credited this truth. But the 
analogies of nature, the suggestions of unaided reason, 
the traditions of men are not silent on this theme, yet it 
is one of the distinguished peculiarities of the revealed 
religion. The resurrection of Christ insures it, and the 
testimonies of inspired writers corroborate it. The resur- 
rection will be universal, "all that are in their graves/' 
etc. The resurrection will be successive, " every man in 
his own order," etc. Will take place at a given signal. 
" Shall hear his voice," etc. Will take place at the last 
great day, "In the resurrection at the last day." The 



OLD AGE. 257 

resurrected body will be essentially the same body that 
was deposited. In many respects, greatly changed — to 
incorruption, glory, power, spirit. The bodies of the 
righteous and the wicked rise to very different allotments 
— "resurrection of life," " resurrection of damnation." 
Let us think of the morning when over the tomb of this 
world Jesus shall announce, " I am the resurrection and 
the life." 



THE MOBTAL AND THE IMMORTAL COM- 
PANION. 

REV. H. F. BURDER. 
Behold 1 die, but God shall be with you. — Gen. xlviii : 21. 
T\7"HAT composure and satisfaction are here ! 
" I. Consider his words in reference to himself. 

1. He was satisfied with the amount of enjoyment 
which the God of his life had granted him. He had 
been brought to regard human life as a pilgrimage and 
journey, which were checquered with joy and sorrow, 
prosperity and adversity. At its close he blessed the 
Lord who had fed him, &c. 

2. He was satisfied with the duration of life which 
had been allowed him. His life was short compared 
with his ancestors, but he had attained the two great 
objects of life — a good hope for immortality and the 
serving of God in his generation according to His will. 

3. He was satisfied with the prospect of a better life 
which was opening before him.- In the midst of his 
dying benediction he paused and exclaimed, "I have 
waited for thy salvation, Lord." Who can tell what 
visions of glory were at that moment granted to his 
spirit ? At his outset in life he beheld the ladder and 
now he may have seen what Stephen saw. 



258 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

II. His words are suggestive of his repose in refer 
ence to his surviving relatives. 

1. The manifestations of the Divine mercy to him- 
self encouraged his hopes as to his surviving relatives. 
Bead the context. "And Israel said unto Joseph, &c." 
What more could he wish for his sons or for his son's 
sons than the guidance, protection and blessing of that 
great Eedeeming angel ? 

2. He was persuaded that the paternal benediction 
he was authorized to pronounce had an aspect peculiarly 
favorable to his descendants. "Let my name be named 
upon them." " Behold I die, but God shall be with you 
and bring you, &c." The covenant made to Abraham. 

3. He felt assured that the covenant made with 
Abraham, Isaac and himself secured the presence and 
blessing of God to his survivors to the remotest age. " God 
shall be with you." See the promise — a clearer develop- 
ment made to Jacob. "The sceptre shall not, &c." — to 
Moses, "my presence shall go, &c." God never abandons 
his charge. What a comfort to Christian parents living 
and dying ! 



THE PIVOTAL FACT. 

THOMAS ARMITAGE, D.D, 
The Lord is risen indeed. — Luke, 24: 34. 
"T/TILLIONS of Orientals utter these words every Easter 
day. They are pivotal words — as Paul avows. 
"If Christ be not risen, &c." Christ's resurrection is the 
key-stone of the Christian religion. He allows of no 
second question. If thus be not a fact, cut out from the 
cherished tombstone of your tenderly loved ones, the 
flaunting fraud, "I am the resurrection and the life." 
Then they who have fallen asleep have perished. 



OLD AGE. 259 

I. The resurrection was a miracle. This the Scrip- 
tures set forth. There is no such power lodged in na- 
ture. It was accomplished by God's immediate power. 
Hear Peter: " This man, whom God raised up, &c." Hear 
Paul: " Which He wrought in Christ, when he raised 
him from the dead, &c." 

II. What the resurrection body was. The same that 
was crucified, &c. f * The Lord has risen,", not someone 
else. I argue this: 

1. From the fact that he prophesied his own per- 
sonal resurrection, in his own personal idenity. Again 
and again he told this to his disciples. It was the same 
Jonah that went into the whale's belly that came out ; 
so of Jesus. 

2. From the fact that his disciples, his most intimate 
friends, recognized that identity though reluctantly. 
Joseph did not steal him, nor did any thieves. The 
angels were careful to describe who had risen. The risen 
Christ treated his disciples exactly as before his death. 
The same old hearts beat together again. Every word, 
and act and look whispers from heart to heart. "It is 
the Lord. It is the Lord." 

3. From the fact that He recognized his own iden- 
tity. He explained the things concerning Himself. 
Eebuked them as before for their unbelief, ate with them 
as before, told them they should work signs as before, 
and to tarry for the fulfillment of the promise made to 
them before. These argue, " It is I myself." 

But the difficulty is with some how could He appear 
to his disciples, when the doors were closed ? The 
words do not necessarily imply that they were holted. 
He appears suddenly to his disciples before on the 
sea — with the disciples. Some might imagine some 
wonderful change had taken place in his body since 
they had left him on the shore^ but no such 



260 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

change had taken place, but what he did was super- 
human, as his entrance into the room may have been 
superhuman. His body was like ours, but not neces- 
sarily controlled at all times in all respects like ours. 
He was man and more — God. He governs the laws, not 
the laws Him. And his body was always glorious enough, 
neither to be sin-stained, nor to see corruption, and that 
is the kind of body his people shall hereafter possess. 



THE DEATH OF A GKEAT MAN. 

EEV. THOMAS J. COLE. 
" A great man fallen this day in Israel." — 2 Sam. iii : 38. 

i^OD'S procedure is often inscrutable, useful men re- 
moved, worthless ones spared. 
I. The constituents of true greatness. The world 
idolizes greatness of a certain kind. Station, wealth, 
talent, knowledge, military prowess, etc. True greatness 
needs not these auxiliaries. It consists in: 

1. Humility — feeling his own weakness, imperfections, 
lying low before God and looking to Him for all strength 
and grace — Moses at the bush. 

2. Submission. Bowing with child-like acquiescence 
in all God's dealings, resting securely in our Father's 
bosom, as Jesus in Gethsemane. Aaron. 

3. Faith. This enables man to see God as reconciled 
in Jesus, fulfilling in Providence the promises of his word 
and ever present as a source of strength. Three Hebrew 
youths, Daniel, Peter and John. 

4. Holiness. He is the greatest conqueror who has 
conquered himself. No man can do this except in God's 
strength. "Joseph in Potiphar's house. 



OLD AGfl. 261 

5. Earnestness. A whole-heartedness, deterred by 
no difficulties. Nehemiah, Paul. 

6. Courage. Not brute or mere animal — but looking 
up to God with a confiding heart and from a sense of 
duty unflinchingly enters the struggle and presses on to 
victory. David and Goliath. 

7. Love. Love to God in Christ — ready to endure 
any amount of suffering and of trial for the honor of the 
Saviour. Paul, " I could wish," etc. " I do count," etc. 

II. The right position for such a character, "in 
Israel." Such a man should be one with the Lord's peo- 
ple, united to them, separated from the world and walking 
in all the ordinances, etc. All the truly great should be 
in the church. 

1. To proclaim their love to Christ. To show they 
are with the people he has bought, the church he has 
established and not living to themselves. 

2. To manifest their sympathy with God's people, in 
holy fellowship, strengthening each other's faith, sharing 
each other's joy, etc. 

3. To aid in the Master's triumphs. In united action 
and in aggressive movements upon the world. Fighting 
with Christ's soldiers. 

III. The solemn fact recorded, a great man " fallen." 
Death knows no rank, respects no service, vindicates his 
supremacy over the smallest and greatest. 

What is thy character ? Art thou truly great ? What 
is thy position ? Art thou in Israel ? What is thy pros- 
pect of death ? Art thou saved? 



Jesus, my only hope Thou art! 
Strength of my failing flesh and heart: 
Oh, could I catch a smile from Thee, 
And drop into eternity. 



262 Memorial tributes. 



THE GKAVE'S CONQTTEKOK. 

THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. 
Ihe first born from tlte dead. — Col. i: 18 
TAEATH is an event we need not attempt to shut out 
of view. When it occurs we invite friends to the 
funeral. The spot where rest the remains is sacred, a 
monument or willow expresses our grief, or a pine green 
amid hoary frosts symbolizes the hopes of : the living and 
the immortality of the dead. From the thought of 
death, the heart of a heathen recoils. Without the hope 
of a better world, death is an object of unutterable gloom, 
needs all the consolations that religion can administer. 
Christ has not left his people comfortless. By his life, 
death and resurrection he has fulfilled the high expecta- 
tions of prophets. He conquered the King of terrors, and 
became the first born from the dead. In what respects ? 

I. He is so in the dignity of his person. The great- 
est who ever entered or shall ever leave the gates of 
death. I can fancy all the dead astonished at his com- 
ing — never before were any of the dead awakened at the 
coming of another. " Art thou become like one of us ?" 
The dead men who returned alive to Jerusalem at Christ's 
death showed that the reign of death was drawing to a 
close, and his own resurrection proclaimed Him the first 
and greatest of the dead. 

II. Because He rose by his own power. There is no 
sensibility, no passion, no power in death. In all cases, 
but Christ's, resurrection life was not resumed, but re- 
stored. He wakes of his own accord, rises by his own 
power, verifying his own saying, " I have power to lay, 
&c." 

III. He is the only one who rose never to die again. 



OLD AGE. 263 

Others who were raised, had to return. They were only 
out on bail. But Jesus lives not to be summoned, but 
to summons. He dieth no more — He fills the throne. 

IV. Because lie has taken precedence Qf his people who 
are all to rise from their graves to glory. He has gone to 
prepare a place for us. The King has gone before. It 
was his right. The head rises first. He is the prelude 
to our own resurrection. He is the harbinger and blessed 
pledge to our own. The first fruits. 

If we are reconciled to God through Christ Jesus, 
what reconciling views of death does this open up to us ? 
We shall rise like Him. Let Him have the pre-emin- 
ence in our thoughts, lives and hearts. Who but He 
shall have it ? Bend every sheaf to Joseph's. 



THOUGHTS ON THE LAST BATTLE. 

KEV. C. H. SPUKGEON". 

The sting of death is sin ; and the strength of sin is the law. But 
tlianks be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord 
Jesus Christ. — I Cor. xv : 56, 57. 

nPHOUGH the Bible is one of the most poetical of 
-*- books, and its language often unutterably sublime, 
yet it is constantly true to nature. However dark may 
be the subject and however brilliant may be the light 
thrown upon it, it does not deny the gloom connected 
with it. Such a subject is death. 

I. The sting of death. Death is a terrible monster 
which each one must fight. He cannot be avoided. 
Each man separately and alone must encounter him. 
He cannot be killed by any mortal, but his sting may be 
extracted. 

1. Sin is the sting. It brought death into the world. 



264 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 8. 

Death is the punishment of sin — this makes it terrible 
and dreaded. 

2. Death more dreaded when sin is not forgiven. 
Sins come trooping round the death-bed of every un- 
prepared one. How fearful they look. How they whip 
the conscience like scorpions. 

3. Sin is the prospect most dreaded of all. What 
shall it be in the next state ? unfolding its bitter fruit 
for ever — no fountain to wash it away and no pardon 
ever extended to it. 

II. The strength of sin. This is the "law." That 
law must be satisfied. This no man can do. 

1. The law is spiritual, extends to the wish of the 
heart, and therefore man cannot keep it. The very im- 
agination of the thought is sin. 

2. The law will not abate one title of its stern de- 
mands. It says to every man who breaks it, " I will not 
forgive you." It curses but never pardons. To keep it 
we must be holy as angels, immaculate as Jesus. 

3. The law will exact a punishment for every trans- 
gression. The two are linked as with adamantine 
chains. The law therefore gives such strength to sin 
that no man can extract this sting of death. 

III. The victory of faith. This is the Christian's 
through Jesus Christ. 

1. Christ has removed the law as a rewarding principle 
to the believer. He is not rewarded by it. 

2. Christ has completely satisfied it — given it a 
perfect obedience and met all its demands, and the 
Christian in death finds sin, its sting, gone, and can 
challenge the monster thus, " Who shall lay anything to 
the charge, &c. ?" Thanks be unto G-od for Jesus — the 
law's satisfier — the extracter of death's sting and the 
giver of the victory to every believer in Him. 



OLD AGE. 265 



THE RIPE CHRISTIAN DYING. 

EEV. C. H. SPURGEON". 

"T7iou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn 
comeUi in Ids season. — Job v: 26. 

'T^HIS is a very beautiful comparison. The shock of 
corn has passed through many changes, survived 
many onsets of the worm, and tempests of wind and 
rain, etc., and is now ripe for the sickle and the garner. 
So with the aged Christian. How often did he in early 
life seem likely to be smitten down by death — how often 
has he been buffetted — accidents innumerable seemed 
ready to smite — but he has survived and now is bending 
with weakness and crowned with the glory of the aged 
Christian. The text intimates: 

I. That death is inevitable. " Thou shalt come." 
This is a true saying, and yet how seldom impressed 

upon the heart. There are many reminders of the fact, 
but it is usually forgotten. Death is not absolutely 
necessary to the Christian, for a time will come when " we 
which are alive and remain shall be caught up," etc. 

II. Death to the Christian is always acceptable. 

" Thou shalt come to thy grave." There will be a 
willingness and cheerfulness to die. He shall die quietly, 
coming to the grave as to a quiet resting-place — this has 
been the experience of many of God's children. 

III. The Christian's death is always timely. " In a 
full age." Die when God's children may, they die in 
" full age." "A full age " is whenever God likes to take 
his children home. Some fruits ripen early, others late 
in the season. A Christian will never die too soon, and 
never die too late — never before ripeness and not after 
ripeness. 

12 



266 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

IV. The Christian will die with honor. " Like a 
shock of corn cometh in his season." There is such a thing 
as an honorable funeral, where devout men assemble, 
carry to the grave and make great lamentation. Such 
funerals are like a " harvest home." There is such a 
melancholy grandeur there. We ought to pay great re- 
spect to the departed saints' bodies. " The memory of 
the just is blessed." 

There are two funerals for every Christian ; one the 
funeral of the body and the other the soul — rather it is 
the marriage of the soul ; for angels stand ready to car- 
ry it to the Saviour. The angels, imitating husbandmen, 
as they near the gates of heaven may shout "Harvest 
Home." There is a holiday whenever a saint enters — 
and there is praise to God, 

"While life, or thought, or being lasts, 
Or immortality endures." 



THE INEVITABLE BATTLE. 

EEV. U. R. THOMAS. 

There is no discharge in that war. — Ecc. viii : 8. 
r |TEE dark thought in these words is the inevitable- 
ness of death. Death is an unavoidable war — a 
war in which we are all pressed men. The richest can 
obtain no substitute, and the greatest are not exempt. 
Illustrious statesmen must enter the lists. Queens and 
kings are like others here. Death comes up into their 
windows and enters into their palaces. The Queen of 
Song must sing her own battle-cry and take the place of 
a dead minstrel. The sculptor, the geologist, the 
architect, how renowned each may be, must resign the 
chisel, hammer or pencil to other hands. The skillful 
physician who devoted his life to conflict disease and 



OLD AGK 267 

resist death, fails at last himself. The accomplished 
historian drops in the ranks and leaves it to another to 
write his history. The judge upon the bench drops his 
pen and takes his place in the silent corps. Philanthro- 
pists, who have given themselves to remove suffering 
and confer happiness, are called by this giant Death to 
cease their beneficent work and follow him, leaving be- 
hind a place "in the Pantheon of the workers of love." 
Preachers of the cross, upon whose lips thousands have 
hung, and who have turned many to righteousness, can- 
not evade death's reveille, who extinguishes their burn- 
ing and shining light in the tomb. Two lessons at least 
are taught. 

I. That we too shall have our places among the dead, 
even though we be obscure, and not illustrious, unknown 
instead of honored. The edict has gone out, "It is ap- 
pointed unto all, &c." "The small and great are 
there/' Death is a war. We are all conscripts for that 
war. There is no necessary disgrace in death. The 
great may have dignity there, the good glory. " Not to 
thy resting-place shalt thou retire alone, &c." But this 
is not our consolation. The strong consolation, the 
purest comfort is in this, " Christ died." The very 
flower of our humanity faded, the Prince of the Kings 
of the earth died, laid in the tomb, left there an im- 
mortal fragrance. He took flesh and blood, "that 
through death he might destroy, &c." 

II. That our death will terminate the mission and fix 
the influence of our life. 

Various are the ways in which we may serve our gen- 
eration and glorify God. There is no monotony in God's 
service. There is a place for each and all, but the death 
of those who have gone before us proclaims that our 
work is hastening to its close. Therefore, " whatsoever 
thy hand findeth to do, &c," or the nobler spirit of 



268 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Jesus. " I must work the works of Him that sent 
me, &c." 

Let our lives be good, if not great, useful, if not il- 
lustrious, and tiien our names will be cherished on earth, 
and we shall be had in everlasting remembrance. 



THE VITAL QUESTION. 

JOHtf TODD, D.D. 
Shall, he live again ? — Job xvi : 14. 
TT is not whether my property be restored, or this lep- 
rosy leave me, or my children be decently buried, 
or shall ever these friends now reproaching me alter their 
opinions, but, " If a man die shall he live again ?" Ten 
thousand other questions will not weigh a feather com- 
pared with this of our text. 

I. There are some things which make it seem im- 
probable that he will. All men feel that death is the re- 
sult of sin. Death would not have entered Eden if sin 
had been kept out. Sin came bringing the flood, 
digging every grave since, and keeps continually at his 
work. The graveyard is full of little cells in which pris- 
oners are shut up. They were stripped of everything 
before they were confined there. No one ever returns. 
Wise men have looked into the grave, tried to peep into 
eternity, but no voice was heard, no movement seen. 
They saw nothing beyond the grave, and resurrection 
was almost too much to hope for. How improbable that 
the lifeless man shall ever come out again. 

II. The resurrection of the body seems probable for 
two reasons. 

1. There is an undefined impression in the minds of 
all men that the dead shall live again. The heathen if 



OLD AGE. 269 

possible buried their families side by side. Every family 
had a great tomb. Abraham bought a burying-ground. 
Jacob said, " I will lie with my fathers, &c." A savage 
carries his wife's body a hundred miles to bury it with 
other loved ones. What is that undefined hope, that 
voice that whispers to the heart, probably all these shall 
be reunited in life again ? Is it a ray shot from revela- 
tion ? The very man who scorns the Bible wants a 
family burying-place. 

2. The changes we see take place around us, show 
the resurrection to be highly probable. Look at that 
sand changed into glass. Look at that little decaying 
acorn out of which the oak springs. Look at that leaf- 
less tree which the spring clothes anew with leaves, 
flowers and fruit. Look at that worm in her cell, appar- 
ently lifeless, break out into a beautiful insect brilliant as 
the rainbow. The power of the resurrection is in each 
of these. And shall man so curiously and wondrously 
made, hare the spirit driven out of her home for ever ? 

III. The Bible makes it certain, that if a man die, he 
shall live again. Life and immortality are brought to 
light by the Gospel. 

Paul recites the facts of Christ's resurrection, and if 
anything can be proved by witnesses then it is proved 
that Christ did rise from the dead. G-od gave Him 
power to rise. His rising was a pledge that he would 
raise up all the dead. Job, who asks this question of our 
text, saw this truth, and cries, "I know that my Re- 
deemer, &c." Daniel, Paul, and John believed it. If 
any doctrine is f ully revealed it is this : My whole being 
has been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. The 
debt has all been paid. I shall come up again from the 
grave with a body like Christ — no sin, suffering or decay. 
" Blessed is he who hath part in the first resurrection." 



270 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Those who have done evil shall come forth to the resur- 
rection of damnation. Avert the latter resurrection by 
coming to Christ for life now. 



RESTJBEECTION HOPE. 

KEV. CAKON H. MELVILL. 
How are the dead raised up, &c. f — 1 Cok. xv : 35, 36. 
HPHE doctrine of the resurrection of the body is pe- 
culiar to Christianity. The immortality of the 
spirit had been spelled out by some of the heathen, but 
when Paul spoke on Mar's Hill of the resurrection of the 
body, some mocked and others said, "We will hear thee 
again of this matter." The text suggests: 

I. The real identity of the resurrection body. The 
apostle uses the figure of a seed put into the ground, &c. 
So the body as a shriveled seed is put into the ground, 
but it shall rise different, and yet the same. Its iden- 
tity shall be preserved. Ten thousand objections may be 
raised. But if it were necessary omnipotence and omnis- 
cience could trace and bring forth every atom. But to 
preserve identity this is not needful. But remember 
the same body in which you sinned, is the same body 
that shall suffer if }^ou die in sin, or if you are a believer 
the same body in which you will be glorified. 

II. While the identity is real, the transformation is 
glorious. The body is now full of seeds of decay. It 
has sufferings, aches, pains, all premonitions .of coming 
death. But the new body is incorruptible — upon it the 
tooth of time can have no power and into it the dart of 
death can never be thrust. Every part of the new body 
shall have stamped upon it "immortality." It will be a 
beautiful body. It is raised in glory. The chrysalis 



OLD AGE. 271 

shall fall off, and man shall mount aloft a glorious crea- 
ture like unto the Eedeemer. It will be a powerful body. 
How weak here in infancy, even at our best state, and 
how weak in death. But then, it will go from strength 
to strength unwearied — flashing its way across shoreless 
spaces, and serving God day and night in his temple. 

III. There will be an undoubted personality of charac- 
ter. God hath given to every seed his own body. The 
body of Paul shall be different from that of Peter. Each 
shall preserve his own peculiarity and individuality. 
Each shall be known from his fellow, and each shall tell 
with transporting joy of his former trials and triumphs 
and of the glories that they are made alike to share. We 
have borne the image of the earthly, but we shall bear the 
image of the heavenly. The wicked too, must rise 
again from the dead. Their bodies will became like 
abestos stone, which lies in the flame and yet is never 
consumed. It will have power — to imagine — suffer, die 
and yet to live. Identity will be preserved — personality 
will be undoubted. " Whosoever believeth shall be 
saved." 



THE FUTTTKE LIFE. 

HENRY M. SCUDDER, D.D. 

Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall 

return unto God who gave it. Ecclbsiastes xii : 7. 

r pHE subject is not chosen to edify by its novelty, but 
-*- rather to confirm faith in the fundamental 
principle of Christianity. The belief in the survival of 
the soul, however, was not confined to Christianity. 
The old religions which flourished before the time of 
authentic history began by affirming an existence after 
this life. This idea in various forms entered into the 
composition of every system of religion. The grand 



272 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

mythologies of the more immediate progenitors of our 
later civilization assumed an hereafter in which a system 
of rewards and punishments was to be meted out. Even 
the barbaric races are not an exception. The grim Norse- 
man had his Valhalla, the American Indian his happy 
hunting-ground, and the more modern explorations into 
the heart of the " dark continent " has failed to discover 
a tribe or nomadic race that did not hold to this primal, 
essential principle of immortality. 

In another and perhaps more philosophical view of 
the case, no adequate, logical reason could be given for 
human existence, if this life ended all. Man stood at 
the apex of a pyramid. Below him were the various 
forms of life, animal and vegetable, and the inanimate 
kingdom. Everything in the world had an object, an 
end. There was a reason in its existence, and it sub- 
served some end. The inanimate world — the dull, cold 
rock and metal — served a purpose in furnishing the es- 
sentials for animal and vegetable life. The vegetable 
world supported thf; animal world, and each higher form 
of life subsisted on a lower form, the end of whose ex- 
istence was thus attained, until man was reached. But 
what was the end of man's life if it ended here ? He 
was a philosophical failure, a cosmic anti-climax. If this 
life, however, was but a state of preparation for a future 
existence, no violence was done to this grand law which 
seemed to pervade all forms of matter, animate and in- 
animate. 

Moreover, there is no necessary connection be- 
tween the soul and the body, and the death of the latter 
is no evidence that the former ceased to exist. With 
death the vital principle, the soul left the body, but who 
should say that it did not continue its existence in a 
different realm ? Man, too, has a conscience which told 
him what was right and what was wrong. Right always, 



OLD AGE. 273 

in the eternal fitness of things, must be rewarded, and 
wrong must just as surely be visited with punishment. 
In this world no one will say that the reward for right- 
doing and the punishment for wrong-doing is meted out, 
and a future existence is required to properly adjust 
these important relations. The doctrine of the survival 
of the soul was in favor of all good and opposed to all 
bad. Men who do not believe in a future life are more 
disposed to swear, drink, lie, and swindle than the 
believers in a future existence. If these bad habits con- 
sort with a denial of a hereafter, then the doctrine is 
presumably false and meretricious. If, on the contrary, 
the belief in immortality characterizes the good man, it 
is prima facie evidence of the verity of that doctrine. 

God in his writings has assured mankind that the 
soul will live : "Then shall the dust return to the earth 
as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave 
it." Man lives under an inexorable law, which requires 
the body to return to dust, and the spirit to return to 
the Creator who gave it. There is no evasion or escape 
from the operation of these laws. One of these laws 
condemned man to an eternal, hopeless death, but the 
other gave him eternal life. Here then was the answer 
to the ancient query : " If a man die shall he live again? " 
"The spirit shall return to God who gave it." 

These laws are calculated to fill sinful men and 
women with terror. They are afraid to die, and stand 
at the Divine tribunal. They could not change the laws 
or escape from their operation. But Christ was the 
supreme law-giver. If they secured Him, He would 
expiate their sins here and answer for them in Heaven, 
and reclothe the disembodied spirit. 
10* 



274 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



THE UNAVOIDABLE JOURNEY. 

EEV. JOHK H. MACDONNA. 

When a few years are come, then shall 1 go tlie way whence I shall not 
return. — Job xvi: 22. 

HPHIS is solemn truth to which every human being 
must concede an unhesitating assent. And it is al- 
so true that the sable stamp of death is engraven in in- 
delible characters all over the world. This is a subject 
which generally fills us with feelings of horror and 
trembling, but there are some who look upon death as 
Paul, and "desire to depart." Of these Job was one. He 
had been made a partaker of affliction, suffered many a 
bereavement, and he contemplated the time of his de- 
parture with such satisfaction as none but a Christian 
could feel, one who reposed all his confidence in his Re- 
deemer. He rejoiced in the contemplation that his life 
was so short — that its shortness would place a period to 
his affliction, and reveal to him the glorious freedom 
from sin and pain which he through Christ would gain 
in the unseen world. Hence we hear him in holy joy, 
exclaim, " When a few years are come," etc. 

The words suggest two things for consideration. 

I. The momentous journey here anticipated. 

How momentous the journey to the tomb ! The soul 
setting out from the perishing body to explore the mys- 
teries of the unknown eternity ! This mysterious, this 
momentous, awful journey has four characteristics : — 

1. It is solemn in its nature. Death implies a sepa- 
ration of soul and body ; the one to mingle with the clods 
of the valley — the other to bound into eternity either as 
a glorified saint to shine as a star for ever in the presence 
of Christ or as a lost soul to dwell in the regions of dark- 



OLD AGE. 275 

ness forever. It is separation too from all we loved on 
earth and an entrance into the dark valley alone. 

2. It is indisputable in its certainty. 

" Your fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, do 
they live for ever ?" Where are those well remembered 
faces and your dear ones that live in your memory ? All 
gone. All have traveled the journey and gone through 
the dark valley. 

3. Death is unknown as to the time of its occurrence. 
The moment is wisely hidden from our view. It may 

be at any time or under any circumstances. When the 
dimple of mirth is upon the cheek, when buying or sell- 
ing occupies the attention or when old age has made the 
grasshopper a burden. 

4. Death is important in its consequences. 

If we close the journey to the dark valley unsaved, we 
are lost for ever. There is no more opportunity for 
spiritual improvement. The door of mercy is shut for 
ever. 

II. The effect the anticipation of death ought to pro- 
duce. 

1. It should cause us seriously to examine ourselves to 
see if we are prepared to undergo it. No one can enter 
the country beyond the river without a passport furnish- 
ed by Jesus. Now is the time to obtain it — this is the 
day of salvation. With this, when the journey is over, 
Jesus will welcome and embrace us and the cross will be 
exchanged for the crown. 

2. The consideration of this final journey ought to 
stimulate the righteous to constant ivatchfulness. 
"Watch," therefore says Jesus. Have your lamps well 
trimmed — your armor all on and burnished and be as men 
waiting for their Lord. 



276 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



THE AGED BELIEVES IN DEATH. 

DAVID THOMAS, D.D. 

By faith Jacob when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph ; 
and worshipped, leaning on tlie top of his staff. — Heb. xi : 21. 

A SPECIAL interest attaches to the last acts and 
~^^ words of one who has long been prominent in a 
people's history, a professed believer in the Saviour, and 
whose example has been, and will be influential. Such a 
man was Jacob, With many imperfections he had noble 
virtues, power with God, and the eye of a seer, but his 
end has come. 

Notice : I. His dying exercise. He blessed his grand- 
children and worshipped. He was not regretting his 
departure from the world, speaking scornfully about the 
indifference of its inhabitants, lamenting the ingratitude 
and neglect of his children and friends, and filled with 
fearful forebodings of the future. He invokes God's 
blessing on the two sons of Joseph. His heart warm 
with love is yearning over them, and longing for their 
spiritual welfare, and those who may succeed them. He 
remembered his own God and the God of his fathers who 
had been so kind to him, and, filled with the inspiration 
of gratitude, reverence and devotion, he supplicates that 
this same God may " bless the lads." 

II. His dying attitude and action. He "leans upon 
the top of his staff." This staff served to support his 
tottering body. Age had made itself felt upon his once 
hardy frame. His strength was departing. He was 
shivering upon the dark borders of the grave, and the 
staff was needed for his support. Thus does time bring 
upon all the infirmities delineated by Solomon in Eccles. 
xii. But while leaning thus, his staff would recall many 



OLD AGE. m 

of the incidents in his varied and eventful history. It 
may have come to him as an heirloom from his grand- 
father Abraham. It may have been the same staff that 
he took with him from his father's house when he 
started a boy to Padan Aram. It may have been the 
same staff that he handled as a shepherd when tending 
the flock of Laban for over twenty years. It may have 
Iain by his side when he slept at Bethel, and saw that 
wondrous vision of augels on the ladder, and God above 
it — promising to be his God, and Jacob when awaked 
promising to be God's. It may have been with him 
when he wrestled with the angel at the brook, and also 
in his hand when he stood before the King in the palace 
of Egypt. What wonderful memories would that old 
staff evoke. What associations often cluster around a 
tree, a stone, an old arm-chair, a picture, &c. Each is 
like an archangel's trump to awake the buried thoughts. 
How natural for the old man when dying to have this 
memento of his life with him, and to lean upon it as 
upon an old and trusty friend. 

How delightful the exercise in which he engaged, 
ind how unselfish the spirit he now manifested. He 
seems now to go out of himself to others, and to God. 
He seems wrapped up in the good of those dearest to 
him on earth, and anxious that they should enjoy God's 
favor, doing his will, and being prepared for an everlast- 
ing companionship in Heaven. The God upon whom he 
had depended all his life now seems dearer to him than 
ever. He worships him as the ever adorable, everlasting 
one into whose immediate presence he is about to pass. 

The only way to die like Jacob — happy — blessing 
others, and worshipping God is to live in friendship with 
relatives now, trusting all to the Elder Brother, and 
having God as the chief joy. 



278 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION. 

REV. CANOK HUGH STOWELL. 

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of 
the dead. — 1 Cor. 15 : 21. 

HPHIS is the Christian's spiritual pillar of cloud and 
fire, on the one side so dark, on the other so bright, 
and both caused by man. 

I. The curse which cfame by man. " Death." 
How terrible is death — how fearful his ravages ; how 
unsparing his scythe ; how universal his dissolutions. 
The blight of earth — the terror of man — the tyrant when 
none can bribe, none elude, and none withstand. 
Whence came it ? Did God originate it ? Was it in- 
volved in his workmanship ? No. It came by man, by 
his transgression — through this one root came the uni- 
versal taint and this universal curse — death, spiritual, 
legal, physical and eternal. 

1. Spiritual death came by man. Man when created 
was radiant with his Maker's image and instinct with 
His spirit. His soul was in constant fellowship with 
God. But sin separated him from God — the spirit of 
God abandoned his breast leaving him dead in trespas- 
ses and sins. 

2. Legal death came by man. No sooner had man 
disobeyed, than the sentence of death was pronounced 
upon him. " By the offence of one, judgment came upon 
all men to condemnation." The execution of the sen- 
tence is suspended, but in the eye of the Divine law 
man is dead, liable to eternal wrath, and there is but the 
breath in his nostrils between him and the death that 
never dies. 

3. Physical death came by man. "Dust thou art 



OLD AGE. 279 

and unto dust shalt thou return/' is written on each 
brow. The seeds of decay are sown in each from the 
first vital moment. All classes and ages alike are swept 
into the dust, generation after generation like the leaves 
of the forest in the Autumn time. 

4. Eternal death came by man. An infinite God re- 
quires a perpetual reparation to his justice, and since in 
this world of woe, there is no remedial power or process, 
sinning on the lost must suffer on, everlasting rebellion 
must entail everlasting retribution. The thought over- 
whelms us with horror and passes all comprehension. 

II. The blessing which came by man. " Resurrec- 
tion." 

If infinite justice dealt with us through one federal 
man in regard to our probation, it has no less dealt with 
us in one federal man in regard to our redemption, so 
that whosoever beliveth on that second man, the Lord 
from heaven, shall not perish, but have everlasting life. 
In Him Emmanuel "God with us" condescended to in- 
corporate himself with poor, dying, ruined humanity, 
that he might lift us up out of the horrible pit into 
which we had plunged and exalt us to everlasting life. 
As man He suffered, and as God He saves. As man He 
died, as God He rose victorious from the grave, and be- 
came the Author of spiritual resurrection to every man 
who receives him as the second Adam, the Lord from 
heaven. In virtue of union with Him, the believer 
"dies from sin and rises again unto righteousness." As 
truly as we derive from the first Adam, death, temporal, 
spiritual, eternal, so truly from Jesus, we derive our 
spiritual, our legal, our eternal life. " Because I live, 
saith He, ye shall live also." 

What is death then when divested of its sting by the 
blood of Jesus ? What is the dissolution of the body, 
when it is in sure and certain hope it sleeps ? It is but 



280 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

a peaceful passage home. It is stript of its terrors. It 
has no power to hurt them that are in Christ Jesus. 
" Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the victory through 
our Lord Jesus Christ." 

To crown all, by man came the resurrection to eternal 
life. This is the perfection of the saint's resurrection — 
raised not only from the grave, and from spiritual death, 
but raised to die no more, and to have perfect consum- 
mation, and bliss with Jesus for ever. Surely every 
redeemed one may well peal forth the rapturous anthem, 
" Worthy is the Lamb, &c." 

The best evidence that we live by Him is, that we 
live to Him. Let us not sorrow for our sainted sleeping 
ones, as others that have no hope. Let our grief be ir- 
radiated with hope — and when " Christ who is our life 
shall appear we shall also appear with him in glory." 



THE WARFARE AND VICTORY. 

REV. GEORGE CLAYTON". 

Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto Tier tliat her warfare 
is accomplished. — Isa. xl : 2. 

r T , HIS message is full of Christ. It was intended in 
the first place as a prediction of the liberation of 
the Israelites from the yoke of Assyrian bondage, and to 
the deliverance of the Jewish church from the bondage 
of ceremonial rites and legal service by the advent of 
Christ, and by the establishment of his glorious kingdom. 
But the language of the text may be applied to the ter- 
mination of any state of anxiety, hardship and grief, to 
the conclusion of the believer's life in this sorrowful 
world, which is a warfare, and death comes to him with 



OLD AGE. 281 

the consolatory message, " Thy warfare is accomplished. " 
Observe : 

I. That the life of a believer in this world is a war- 
fare. 

It is often represented in scripture by this form of 
military phraseology, "Fight the good fight of faith." 
" War a good warfare," &c. 

1. The great principle of the conflict is faith found- 
ed and implanted in the mind by a supernatural agency. 
No man will ever in a Christian sense conteud until he is 
constituted a true believer, united by a living faith to 
Jesus. Faith puts itself into an attitude of resistance 
against all that is hostile to itself. It discovers to its 
possessor many adversaries, both within and without, 
everywhere, in all conditions. 

2. This contention will be continued as long as life 
lasts. This period constitutes the campaign, the war- 
fare and the appointed time. The conflict must be sus- 
tained without interruption, truce or armistice till we 
come to the vestibule of the tomb. 

II. The hour of death witnesses the accomplishment 
of this warfare. 

1. Death is the instrumental means of separating us 
from our connection with the present evil world. When 
death comes with its commission signed by the King of 
Heaven in one hand, it comes with a label inscribed 
with these words in the other, "Thy warfare is accom- 
plished," a separation will now be made between you and 
the elements of danger, the things that taint the eye, 
pollute the ear and endanger the heart. 

2. Death terminates the strife of sin ; puts an end to 
the contention. What placidity reigns upon the counte- 
nance of the departed, what exemption from all that 
formerly kindled the passions, awakened the evil 
principles of the heart, and produced a grevious conten- 



282 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

tion, which was conducted with many a groan and pang 
in the secret chambers of the heart. But it is all over 
when the stroke of death falls. 

Death confesses the believer a conqueror over himself, 
and yields the palm of victory at the moment when he 
inflicts the blow. Death's triumph is only in appear- 
ance, not in reality. 

"For when pale death has lost his sting, 
He wears an angel's face." 

Nothing then remains to the believer but one unmix- 
ed and everlasting triumph. 

III. The consoling and exhilarating qualities of this 
blessed consummation. " Speak ye comfortably, &c," 
for the following reasons : 

1. When the warfare ends, the rest begins. " There 
remaineth a rest, &c." "They shall enter into rest, 
&c." How delightful is that state of bliss which im- 
mediately succeeds to the conflicts of time. What more 
acceptable than rest to the weary and comfort to the 
sorrowing ! 

2. This state of rest is also a state of peculiar and 
inexpressible delight. It is a joyful rest — in the Father's 
house — where Christ is ; the city of the great King, 
with all the ransomed spirits of the just made perfect, 
and all the holy ones before the throne. Their employ- 
ment as well as their society is joyful. They keep an 
everlasting Sabbath. Contemplate the face of infinite 
perfection and beauty, bask in the rays of an uncreated 
sun, see Christ as He is, and are made perfectly like 
Him. 

3. This felicity is evermore increased. Even the 
cup of full fruition will be continually enlarged. As the 
circle of eternal ages shall roll on, the minds of the saved 



OLD AGE. 283 

will be getting nearer and nearer to God and making 
higher advances in knowledge, perfection and enjoyment. 

4. This felicity will be for ever and without end. 
"So shall we be ever with the Lord." "These shall 
enter into life eternal." What that eternal life is, what 
thought can conceive, or tongue can utter. A life with 
God, a life like God's, a life continually tending to God, 
a life eternal as the existence of God Himself. "Ever- 
lasting joy shall be upon their heads." 

The message implies nothing comfortable to a man 
out of Christ. 



HOPE FOE THE SLEEPING DEAD. 

WILLIAM LANDELS, D.D. 

1 would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which 
are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others who 
no hope. — 1 Thess. iv: 13. 



TTOW sweet and beautiful is sleep ! falling "like tired 
eyelids upon tired eyes." How essential to nature ! 
how delightfully refreshing and exhilarating in its in- 
fluence ! Like other common blessings undervalued 
because always enjoyed. The ancients believed it to be 
the gift of the gods, and the Bible tells us, " so He giv- 
eth His beloved sleep." Poets have taxed their powers 
of language to utter its eulogy. Young's description of 
it, is " tired nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep." And 
Mongomery beautifully says, " night is the time for rest," 
etc. It is a striking illustration of the transforming 
power of Christianity that it converts that which is most 
repulsive to man into a thing so beautiful and grateful 
as sleep. To the Christian man, death is but sleep. 
This is the term most frequently employed in the 
New Testament to describe the condition of the holy 



284 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

dead. Thus does Christianity strip death of its repul- 
siveness, presenting under this pleasing image, mingling 
pleasure with the thoughts of the departed, calming our 
minds in the prospect of our dissolution and converting 
our burial grounds into cemeteries, where after life's fit- 
ful fever we calmly take our rest. 

I. Death may be so called because of the peaceful 
nature of the Christian's death. He lies down to die calm- 
ly as the tired laborer to take his nightly rest, whereby 
he knows he will gain sweet refreshment ; or like the 
warrior after the hard-fought battle, lays aside his armor, 
wraps his cloak around him and lays him down to well 
earned repose. 

II. The approach of death is often silent and soft as 
the approach of sleep. As the weary man when he lays 
his head on his pillow sinks imperceptibly into a state of 
slumber, so the Christian oftentimes without a struggle, 
gradually sinks until his eyes are closed to earthly things 
and the spirit passes into God's presence. It is like the 
melting of the morning star. It is like the fading away 
of the summer cloud. 

III. The Christian's death resembles a sleep because 
of its attractiveness. The laborer toiling beneath a 
burning sun sometimes longs for the shades of evening 
when he may stretch his tired limbs and lose the sense 
of weariness in the unconsciousness of sleep. So the 
Christian many a time longs for death, because earth 
is a place of incessant conflict, is daily losing its charms 
— and heaven's attractions aie continually augmenting, 
there he will rest, be with loved ones and with Jesus. 

IV. The Christian's death may be compared to sleep, 
because it is to be followed by an awakening. The 
heathen might have no hope of a resurrection. The 
Jew might but dimly see the shadow of the resurrec- 
tion. But under the Christian dispensation the resur- 



OLD AGE. 285 

rection is to the humblest believer an object of sure and 
certain hope. Death to him is not a night with no 
morning beyond, but a night which ushers in the morn- 
ing of an everlasting day. It is impossible to mistake 
the meaning of the Saviour's words. " Marvel not at 
this, &c." And the Saviour's own resurrection has 
broken the dominion of death and is the pledge that 
those who sleep in the dust shall awake. 

V. The Christian's death may be compared to sleep 
because of the repose which he enjoys. He then enters 
•' ; the rest which remains for the people of God." Life's 
fitful fever over, he sleeps well. He enjoys the rest of 
wearied humanity. He " rests from his labors/' no more 
persecutions from sword or pen, or tongue, no more 
sorrow or disappointment, no more warfare with sin 
within or without, with Satan, The struggle is over, the 
battle ended, and now he rests. 

VI. The Christian's death may be compared to sleep, 
because of its refreshing influences. When those who 
sleep in Jesus shall wake up on the Resurrection morn- 
ing they will appear refreshed and changed — but not so 
changed as to prevent mutual recognition. The wearied 
wasted body that sank into the grave, shall come forth 
on the resurrection morning a renovated body, blooming 
with immortal youth, exempt from infirmities, and en- 
dowed with unknown strength. As the laborer awakes 
in the morning recovered from the effects of the previous 
day's labor, so on waking from the sleep of death, the 
Christian shall be perfectly free from all the consequences 
of this sinful earthly life. His soul shall be wedded to 
a body worthy of itself, a body resembling in strength 
and beauty the glorified body of Christ. 

These considerations should lead us : 
1. To moderate our grief over the loss of those friends 
ivho sleep in Jesus. Christianity does not require us to 



286 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

be stoics. He who wept on the grave of Lazarus will 
not frown on the sorrows of the bereaved. But we should 
not " sorrow as those who have no hope." Since our 
friends have gone to be with Jesus, and we shall meet 
them there. 

2. To contemplate death with less fear and aversion 
than is generally felt towards it. There is something re- 
pulsive in the article of death. But it is the way to our 
Father's house, to the glorious realities that await us in 
the better world. 

3. To renewed animation in our present labors. Pre- 
sent toil will sweeten future rest. Present work done 
for God will increase the reward that God himself will 
bestow upon us. " Be not weary," &c. — The resting 
time will soon come. There are some to whom death 
will not be such a sleep. Are you in Christ ? 



THE DEATH OF THE OLD. 

KEV. THOMAS BINNEY. 

Your fathers where are they? and tlie prop7iets, do they live for ever? 
Zech. i : 5. 

r I^HESE words are appropriate to the occasion, and 
•^ are in harmony with the feelings under which we 
have assembled. They suggest : 

I. The great law under which we receive and possess 
existence — that we die : the law of mortality under which 
we were born. 

All men die and all things die. It could not well be 
otherwise. Where there is vegetation there must be decay. 
Where there is production and reproduction there must 
be death. And had man continued innocent in a world 
in which the species was to increase and multiply, there 



OLD AGE. 287 

must of necessity have been some mode of removal ; for 
a limited space never could have accommodated indefinite 
numbers. And in the process of removal, man must 
have been changed, translated, transfigured, and made 
immortal. Nature and animals may have died before, 
and therefore to man it was said, but "if thou eatest, 

i also shalt die" 

But it is better to look at death in its moral and 
spiritual aspects, for thus it is commonly represented to us 
in the Scriptures. " Death by sin." Death is the shadow 
of sin. The great, dark, black substance, we call sin, 
comes between man and the bright light of God's coun- 
tenance, and casts its shadow over man. and that shadow 
is death. In other words, it is the symptom of a deep- 
seated disease. God applies his remedy to the cure of 
the disease, and to this dark substance, and the symptom 
is removed and the shadow disappears. They suggest : 

II. The amazing power of the principle of life. 
It is a wonderful thing, that a human body with its 
nice and delicate organization should go on sleeping and 
waking, toiling and working without intermission and 
without rest for 90 or 100 years. Xo piece of mechanism 
constructed by man could sustain that constant, per- 
petual, uninterrupted action for all that time. But the 
individual man previous to his being broken up and laid 
aside has the amazing power of reproducing himself 
many times, and thus though the individual departs, 
they are left his representatives, new, fresh, vigorous, 
to carry on the work and machinery of the world. The 
power of man, then, even in this world is stronger than 
death. In spite of all that death does and all that man 
does to help him by drunkenness and vice and war, the 
species increases more and more, so that if death begins 
with a generation, and goes on cutting and mowing it 
down, when he has thus gone round the world and comes 



288 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

back to where he started, there is a greater number alive 
than when he began. 

Such is the great and wonderful power in this prin- 
ciple of life, and thus it is, that in a certain sense, 
death is continually being conquered in his own world. 
A prediction and a type of what awaits him when the 
words of scripture shall be fulfilled, that "the last 
enemy " shall be entirely destroyed and " mortality shall 
be swallowed up of life." They suggest : 

III. That though there be this wonderful power in 
life, old age in general is not in itself desirable. Even 
when comparative wealth can procure whatever is need- 
ful, and make old age tolerable to the last, yet it often 
happens, that old age is only an additional affliction to 
the ordinary ills of life. Nature does a great deal in- 
dependent of religion to bring men to be willing to die. 
For where there is no religion, and no "good hope 
through grace," and no trust in the Divine mercy the 
language and feeling of the man often is, "I would not 
live alway." The aged man stands alone, has outlived 
his friends, his capacity of forming new attachments — 
the world is behind him, a new generation has sprung 
up that knows him not. He is dependent, surrounded, 
and confined to a little circle of those immediately 
about him, just as he was in childhood. The aged can- 
not sympathize with new hearts and new persons, new 
modes of thought and feeling. How different in this 
aspect is man from God, who has fresh and young affec- 
tion for every generation as it comes, and who can look 
up to Him with the same cordiality and the same con- 
fidence as the first. They suggest : 

IV. That death of a very aged person is uncommon. 
It is extraordinary. The general law is that men do not 
all die at one particular age. There is no fixed date up 
to which all men are to live and beyond which none can 



OLD AGE. 289 

survive. This would have been intolerable, inconsistent 
with the beneficent arrangements of a merciful God. He 
would not thus poison life. But the price we have to 
pay for this beneficent arrangement is, that we must be 
prepared to see death occur at all ages, under all circum- 
stances, the most affecting, the most tender, the most 
tragical. There is nothing, therefore, in the time of a 
person's death to indicate character, or the condition of 
their future state. This uncertainty is therefore a be- 
nevolent darkness and blessed thing. Few, however, live 
over the allotted span of three or four score years. They 
are the exceptions to the general law. The text suggests: 

V. That there are limits to human probation and 
Divine forbearance. Israel at this time had grown re- 
miss, begun to pour contempt on God's word and temple, 
and God had somewhat shown his displeasure by the earth 
refusing her increase and the heavens their dew, and 
Zechariah appeals to them, that there must be a limit to 
disobedience of man and the exhortations of God ; that 
the agents and the objects of the Divine mercy equally 
die. This rebellion on your part, the prophet seems to 
tell them, cannot go on forever. It is not God's way. 
"The prophets, do they live for ever? And your fathers, 
where are they ?" Dead. Now remember, says Zech- 
ariah, you are living under the same law. Probation has 
its limits. Forbearance has its limits. Time and oppor- 
tunity of repentance have their limits. 

We should lay this to heart. We are living under the 
same law. We are now in the enjoyment of the means 
of grace and the offer of salvation. God graciously 
comes and speaks to us sending in the word and in the 
ministry message after message, prophet after prophet. 
But it must come to an end. It cannot go on for ever. 
Our children will rise up and look back into the dark, 
13 



290 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

dim past and say, they were " our fathers," "where are 
they ?" We shall be gone. They suggest : 

VI. The power and perpetuity of God's truth in con- 
trast with the mortality of man. The prophets may die 
and the fathers may go in like manner, but the utter- 
ances of a true prophet survive. A true thought is a 
Divine and immortal thing. What has come from the 
mind and heart of God lives, has power in it. " The 
prophets, do they live for ever ? But my words and my 
statutes, &c," all will come to pass exactly as the Lord 
had said. God's word has perpetual strength and youth 
and power. It never grows old and never dies. 



THE PERISHING AND THE ENDURING. 



The grass withereth, the flower fadrth ; but the word of our God shall 
stand for ever.— Isaiah xl : 8. 

TSAIAH in these sublime chapters reaches the very 
crown and flower of his prophetic work ; the splen- 
did climax of a great whole. The text is uttered by the 
second of two voices spoken to Isaiah as if out of the 
world of spirits. 

The immediate and historical purpose of these words 
is, undoubtedly, to reassure the Jews of the captivity. 
They were in Babylon as Isaiah saw them — saw them 
across the centuries — far from their home, surrounded 
by the imposing fabric of the great empire, crushed into 
silent submission by its force, awed at times, or fascin- 
ated b} 7 its splendor. It seemed so much more solid, so 
much more lasting than the monarchy of David had 
been, they could not think that it would perish. 

It was to men whose eyes were resting on this scene 



OLD AGE. 291 

of magnificence and power that Isaiah spoke out of an- 
other land and out of an earlier age, the solemn words 
" All flesh is grass and all the beauty thereof is as the 
flower of the field." 

Was it possible that such a metaphor could be truly 
applied to the city and throne and people of Nebuchad- 
nezzar ? Yes, it was passing. Isaiah already saw the 
capture of the city by a Medo-Persian army. And after 
the conquest of Persia by the Great Alexander, the city 
ceased to be in any sense a seat of empire. It became, 
in fact, for many centuries, a mere quarry, which sup- 
plied the materials for building several cities. Every 
modern traveller tells us, now, that "the beauty of the 
Chaldees excellency/' has become heaps — that her walls 
have fallen and been thrown down and broken utterly — 
that her very site is a wilderness, that the wild beasts 
of the desert lie there, that the natives regard the site 
as haunted by evil spirits, so that neither will the Arab 
pitch tent, nor the shepherd fold sheep there, that in a 
word, prophecy has been literally fulfilled. The beauty 
of human life is this : for many a century, its principal, 
its representative centre, was after all but as a flower of 
the field. " The grass withereth, &c." 

And even had it been otherwise — had Babylon been 
chartered with the promise of an eternal youth, 
Babylonians would have died one after another. The 
individual man is still as the grass which withereth, 
even if the political society to which he belongs were 
strictly imperishable. In this respect there was no dif- 
ference between the courtiers and officers of Nebuchad- 
nezzar and the silent captives, who, by the waters of 
Babylon, sat down and wept when they remembered 
Zion. Of bothft was true that " the grass withereth and 
the flower fadeth." The simile has a two-fold force. 

I. It justifies, to a certain extent, the sympathy with, 



292 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

the admiration of human life with its freshness, its 
variety, its beauty, which would have been felt to a cer- 
tain extent by captive -Israel. 

What is more beautiful that a single blade of grass ? 
There it is waving in the wind, inimitable in its form, 
in the grace of its movement, in the subtilty and deli- 
cacy of its texture. We cannot reproduce that blade of 
grass, nor even really imitate it. It is just as much be- 
yond us as the sun itself. How mysterious it is ! How 
little really we know about it ! How did it come to be 
there ? It grew from a seed. Why should it grow ? 
What do we mean by that which we call "growth." 
Growth is a profound unfathomable mystery moving be- 
fore our eyes wherever we find it. It implies the active 
energy of life. We share this power of growth and life 
with the humblest blade of grass. We are far from 
being dishonored when our life is compared in Scripture 
to a thing so full of wonder and of beauty. 

II. Isaiah refers to the grass as an emblem of the 
perishable and the perishing. 

The grass, has at best, a vanishing form, ready, al- 
most before maturity, to be resolved into its elements — to 
sink back into the earth from which it sprang. "The 
breath of the Lord has blown upon it." Death does not 
come to men, animals or herbs simply in consequence of 
the chemical solvents which they contain, but because the 
Being who gave them life, freely withdraws that which 
he gave. Death is always the fiat of God, arresting the 
course of life. This truth of revelation* is not at variance 
with the chemistry of animal life. Whatever else human 
life is, or may imply, it is soon over. It fades away sud- 
denly like the grass. The world may have made great 
progress during the centuries, but the frontiers of life do 
not change with the generations of men. We are born 
and die just as our rudest ancestors. Every one of us 



OLD AGE. 293 

shall die. " The grass withereth, &c." It is not a bit 
of sentiment, but a solid law, true at this moment and 
always true. But : 

III. " The word of the Lord endureth for ever." How 

do we know that ? We know it to be true if we believe 
two things — (1) that God the perfect Moral Being ex- 
ists, (2) that He has spoken to man. 

If God is eternal, then that which He proclaims as 
his truth and will, will bear on it the mark of his 
eternity. If it is true it will bear the impress of his 
faithfulness. The great facts of Eeyelation, clustering 
around Jesus Christ, as their centre and substance, do 
not change, because they rest upon the authority of the 
unchanging God. There is something that does not 
change. It is still what it was when we were young, it 
is what it will be when we are laid in our coffins. It is 
liks God Himself. It lasts. Men's opinions about it 
may change, but it remains what it was, hidden, it may 
be, like a December sun — behind the clouds of specula- 
tion or of controversy — but in itself unchanged, un- 
changeable. " Thy word, Lord, endureth, &o." 

Let us then remember these two truths, " The grass 
withereth, &c." It is true of all other men, it must be 
true of us. We may read the solemn truth in the world 
around us. Every age, every rank, every profession 
furnishes the proof. Life would be unendurable, but 
for the second truth. "The word of the Lord shall 
stand forever." What then is the object of my 
thoughts, hopes, affections, conduct ? Is it this perish- 
ing life, which must so soon have vanished like a dream, 
which is so perpetually changing ? or, is it the unchang- 
ing eternal word which liveth and abideth for ever ? 

That great question, that question of questions, be- 
tween the grass that withereth, on the one hand, and 
the word that shall stand for ever on the other, must be 



294 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

answered. Let each answer for himself ere he takes 
another step on the brief journey across the fields of 
time towards the gate of the eternal world. 



ASLEEP IN JESUS. 

THEODORE L. CUYLER, D.D. 

For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose again, even so them also 
which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him. — 2 Thess. 4 : 14. 

IVTO Scriptural description of death is so suggestive and 
so consoling as that which is conveyed by the fa- 
miliar word sleep. It recurs often. Stephen the martyr 
breathes his sublime prayer, and then " he fell asleep." 
Our Lord said to His disciples : " Our friend Lazarus 
sleepeth : but I go that I may awake him out of sleep" 
Paul, in that transcendently sublime chapter on the resur- 
rection, treats death as but the transient slumber of the 
body, to be followed by the glorious awakening at the 
sound of the last trumpet. And then he crowns it with 
the voice of the Divine Spirit, that marvelous utterance 
which has been said, and sobbed, and sung in so many a 
house of bereavement : " I would not have you to be ig- 
norant concerning them which are asleep ; for, if we be- 
lieve that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also 
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him." No 
three words are inscribed on more tombs or on more 
Hearts than these, "Asleep in Jesus." 

These declarations of God's Word describe death as 
simply the temporary suspension of bodily activities. 
Not a hint is given of a total end, an extinction, or an 
annihilation. The material body falls asleep, the im- 
mortal spirit being, meanwhile, in full activity ; and 
the time is predicted when the body, called up from the 



OLD AGE. 295 

tomb, shall reunite with the deathless spirit, and the 
man shall live on through eternity. What we call dying 
is only a momentary process. It is a flitting of the im- 
mortal tenant from the frail tent or tabernacle, which 
is so often racked with pain and waxes old into decay. 
Paul calls it a departure : "To depart and be with 
CJirist." The spiritual tenant shuts up the window of 
the earthly house ere he departs. We kiss the brow, and 
it is marble. The beloved sleeper is sleeping a sleep 
that thunders or earthquake cannot disturb. But 
what is there in this slumber of the body that suggests 
any fear that the ethereal essence of the spirit has be- 
come extinct, or even suspended its activities ? When 
the mother lays her darling in its crib, she knows that 
sleep simply means rest, refreshment, and to-morrow 
morning's brighter eye, nimbler foot, and the carol of 
a lark in her nursery. 

They who die in Jesus live a larger, fuller, nobler 
life, by the very cessation of care, change, strife, and 
struggle. Above all, they live a fuller, grander life, be- 
cause they ' sleep in Jesus ' and are gathered into His 
embrace, and wake with Him, clothed with white robes, 
awaiting the adoption — to wit, the redemption of the 
body." In God's good time, the slumbering body shall 
be resuscitated and shall be "fashioned like to Christ's 
glorious body " — i. e., it shall be transformed into a con- 
dition which shall meet the wants of a beatific soul in its 
celestial dwelling-place. Verily with this transcendent 
blaze of revelation pouring into the believer's death- 
chamber and his tomb, we ought not to sorrow as they 
that have no hope. 

In this view of death (which is G-od's own view) how 
vivid becomes the Apostle's exclamation: " I am confi- 
dent, and willing rather to be absent from the body and 
to be present with the Lord" Paul was entirely willing 



296 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

that the old, scarred, and weary body might be put to 
sleep, so that he might go home and be present with his 
Lord. Then mortality would be swallowed up of life. 
Go to sleep, poor, old, hard-worked body, the Apostle 
seems to say, and Jesus will wake thee up in good time, 
and thou shalt be " made like to the body of His glory, 
according to the working whereby He subdues all things 
unto Himself." 

Let us not be charged with pushing this Scripture 
simile too far, when we hint that it illustrates the different 
feelings with which different persons regard the act of 
dying. When we are sleepy, we covet the pillow and the 
couch. Even so do we see aged servants of God, who 
have finished up their life-work, and many a suffering 
invalid, racked with incurable pains, who honestly long 
to die. They are sleepy for the rest of the grave and the 
home beyond it. For Christ here, with Christ j^onder, 
is the highest instinct of the Christian heart. The noble 
missionary, Judson, phrased it happily when he said : 
"I am not tired of my work, neither am I tired of the 
world ; yet, when Christ calls me home, I shall go with 
the gladness of a boy bounding away from school." He 
wanted to toil for souls until he proved sleepy, and then 
he wanted to lay his body down to rest and to escape 
into glory. 

A dying-bed is only the spot where the material frame 
falls asleep. Then we take up the slumbering form, and 
gently bear it to its narrow bed in Mother Earth. Our 
very word "cemetery" describes this thought. It is de- 
rived from the Greek word Koi^r^piov (Tcoimeterion), which 
signifies a sleeping-place. It is a mingled and promis- 
cuous sleeping-place ; but the Master " knoiveth them 
that are His." They who sleep in Him shall awake to 
be for ever with the Lord. 

On this tremendous question of the resurrection of 



OLD AGE. 297 

our loved ones, and our reunion with them, our yearning 
hearts are satisfied with nothing less than certainty 
"We demand absolute certainty, and there are just two 
truths that can give it. The first one is the actual fact 
of Christ's own resurrection from the death-slumber ; 
the second is His omnipotent assurance that all they who 
sleep in Him shall be raised up and be where He is for 
evermore. Those early Christians were wise in their 
generation when they carved on the tomb of the martyrs 
" In Jesu Christo oMormivit," — In Jesus Christ he fell 
asleep. 

The fragrance of this heavenly line perfumes the very 
air around the believer's resting-place. Giving to the 
Latin word its true pronunciation, there is sweet melody, 
as well as Heaven-sent truth, in this song of the sleepers: 

"Oh! precious tale of triumph this! 

And martyr-blood shed to achieve it, 
Of suffering past — of present bliss. 
1 In Jesu Christo oodormivit. 1 

" Of cherished dead be mine the trust, 
Thrice-blessed solace to believe it, 
That I can Utter o'er their dust, 
4 In Jesu Christo obdormiviV 

44 Now to my loved one's grave I bring 
My immortelle and interweave it 
With God's own golden lettering, 
4 In Jesu Christo oodormiviV " 



The brightest bow we only trace 
Upon the darkest skies. 

Frances Ridley Havergal. 
13* 



298 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

THE GATES OF DEATH. 

DAVID THOMAS, D.D. 

Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the 
doors of the shadow of death ? — Job xxxviii : 14 

nPHESE remarkable words are part of a wonderfully 
sublime address, which God delivered to Job 
amidst the rush and war of an eastern whirlwind. The 
long, earnest and unsatisfactory debate which had been 
carried on between the patriarch and his friends touch- 
ing the government of God was thus terminated with 
an awfully grand abruptness. In these communications of 
the Almighty, He does not condescend to propound a 
solution of the difficulty which had perplexed their 
judgment and engrossed their discussion. 

He gives no explanation of his doings, but the grand 
aim of his appeal is to impress the importance and duty 
of confidence in His character. Man, intellectually, is 
too small to comprehend his doings. A firm unshaken 
trustfulness, therefore, is at once his duty and interest. 

Among the many things He appeals to in order to 
impress Job with his insignificance, as compared with 
his Maker, is the dark region of death expressed in our 
text : — " Have the gates of death, &c" The allusion 
here is to the state, which in the Hebrew is called S7ieol, 
and in the Greek Hades ; which means the dark abode 
of the dead — the deep, dark, vast realm to which all 
past generations are gone — to which all the present gen- 
eration is going and whither all coming men up to the 
day of doom will proceed. The ancients supposed this 
region to be underground, entered by the grave, and en- 
closed by gates and bars. 

This Divine appeal suggests four things : — 



OLD AG& 299 

I. The mental darkness which enshrouds us. All the 

phenomena of the heavens, the earth and the multiform 
operations of the Creator referred to in this Divine ad- 
dress, were designed and fitted to impress Job with the 
necessary limitation of his knowledge, and the ignorance 
which encircled him on all questions. The region of 
death is but one of the many points to which he is 
directed as an example of his ignorance. 

How ignorant we are of the great world of departed 
men ! What a thick veil of mystery enfolds the whole ! 
What questions often start within us to which we can 
give no satisfactory reply, either from philosophy or the 
Bible ! We should be thankful that we are left in 
ignorance : 

1 . Of the exact condition of each individual in that 
great and ever-growing realm. In general, the Bible 
tells us that the good are happy and the wicked miser- 
able. This is enough. We would have no more light. 
We would not know all about those we have known and 
loved ; we would not know the exact pursuits they are 
following and the exact thoughts and emotions that cir- 
culate in an incessant flow through their souls. If we 
saw them as they are, should we be fit to enjoy the few 
days of this brief life or to perform its duties ? We 
should stand paralyzed at the vision. We are thankful 
that we are left in ignorance : 

2. Of our exact proximity to the great realm of the 
departed. We would not have the day or the hour dis- 
closed. The men to whom the day of death was made 
known were confounded. Saul heard from Samuel, &c, 
Peter told Sapphira, &c. Who if he knew it would 
undertake any enterprise ? Would Moses have under- 
taken the guidance of the Israelites, if he had known 
that neither he nor they would cross the Jordan ? 



300 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Would Jonathan have ascended Gilboa ? David, &c. 
Let us be grateful for this ignorance. 
The Divine appeal suggests : — 

II. The solemn change that awaits us. "The gates " 
lave not been opened to us, but must. Speaking of 
death according to the figure before us, we observe : 

1. The gates are in constant motion. No sooner are 
they closed to one than another enters. It is computed 
that one enters every -moment. 

2. TJie gates open to all classes. There are gates 
which are to be entered only by persons of distinction ; 
but here are kings and beggars, &c. 

3. The gates open only one to ay — into eternity. We 
have, it is true, an account of a few that have come back. 
But only one Avho had not to go that way again. No 
coming back. Job vi : 7-13. " They shall," says Job, 
"return no more." Hezekiah. David said, "I shall go 
to him, &c." We should rejoice in this. We would not 
have the good back again, nor the bad. The Caesars, 
the Alexanders, the Napoleons, back again ! No ! Thank 
God for death. 

4. The gates separate the probationary from the retri- 
outionary. When we pass those gates what do we leave 
behind ? on what do we enter. 

5. The gates are under supreme authority. There is 
one Being who can open them. Not accident, &c. The 
Divine appeal suggests : 

III. The wonderful mercy that preserves us. 

1. We have always teen near those gates. We dwell 
in houses of clay. 

2. Tliousands have gone through since we began the 
journey of life. Younger and better too. 

3. We have often been made to feel ourselves near, (a) 
In personal affliction. We have felt the cold breeze 
coming up freezing the temple and chilling the blood. 



OLD AGE. 301 

(b) In bereavements while we have stood by holy death- 
beds we have felt the aroma wafted from the lovely scenes 
on the other side. "The Lord is not slack concerning 
his promise as some men connt slackness." The Divine 
appeal suggests: 

IV. The service Christianity renders us. 

1. It assures us there is life on the other side the gates. 
In stepping through them, we do not step into black 
extinction. So much light as this, the old philosophers 
never reached. 

2. It assures us there is blessedness on the other side 
the gates. It opens the door of the future and shows us 
a world of men in heaven, "I saw a great multitude," 
&c. 

"They live, the beautiful, the dead, 
Like stars of fire above our head." 

3. It takes away the instinctive repugnance we feel in 
stepping through those gates. 

" It delivers those who through fear of death are all 
their lifetime subject to bondage." It takes the sting of 
death away, &c. 

Friends, you must soon pass through these gates. 
You are very near them now. " What is your life ? A 
vapor," &c. — the flitting rays of a meteor. With the 
first breath you drew you took a step towards those gates, 
and thither you have been wending ever since. 

" Your hearts, like muffled drums, 

Are beating funeral marches to the grave." 

I would not lessen the pleasures of young life. I 
would not cool your blood, nor throw one shade over 
those bright and glowing prospects which imagination 
pictures ; but I would have you take life as it is and 



302 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

enjoy it for what it is worth. Enjoy it, as I have often 
enjoyed, on my native mountains, the setting of a sum- 
mer's sun. The streaks of glory which played upon the 
western sky, as the great orb went down in blazing 
splendor, kindled within me unutterable emotions of 
delight, yet, I felt, as I admired, that the magnificent 
scene would soon vanish, and all above and below would 
be darkness. 

" Time is a Prince whose resistless sway, 
Everything earthly must needs obey, 
The aim of war, and the tyrant's frown, 
And the shepherd's crook and the conqueror's crown. 
Palaces, pyramids, temples, towers, 
With the falling leaves and the fading flowers, 
And the sunset's flush and the rainbow's ray 
At the touch of Time are passing away." 



JOB'S TESTIMONY ABOUT HIMSELE AS A 
BELIEVEE. 

THOMAS GUTHRIE, D.D. 
" And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh 

shall 1 see God; Whom 1 shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall 

behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me. 

— JoBxix: 26, 27. 
npHIS is the testimony which the patriarch has to give 
concerning himself. 

I. Job's faith was his own ; intensely personal and ap- 
appropriating : "I know that my Redeemer liveth"— 
not Adam's, Abel's or Noah's Redeemer, not merely "the 
Redeemer of God's elect " — but " my Redeemer." Less 
than this would have been less than the faith "that over- 
cometh f and the bearer of a Gospel too stinted to war- 
rant this would have been to him the most miserable of 



OLD AGE. 303 

•all his ''miserable comforters." Such little words as 
" my " are the life and nerve of faith's vocabulary. His 
health and wealth, &c, were gone. His only hold was 
then to cling to the Redeemer as his Own, his One. his 
All ; and to Him he clung as with a deatlrs-grasp, with 
the tenacity of true, appropriating personal faith, while 
his nearest and dearest abandoned him, while his depend- 
ents reviled him, and the wreck of his wonted grandeur 
lay strewn all around him. 

Thus did Job. Thus let us do. Our warrant is not 
what we find in ourselves as better than others, or even 
as better than our former selves, but in the precious Gos- 
pel truth that God is to us " the God of peace " as the 
God and Father and gracious Giver of that divine-human 
Redeemer " who gave himself a ransom for all," and 
therefore for us. In the pure effulgence of this "glorious 
Gospel of the blessed God," in '-'words legible only by 
the light they give," without any reflex or circuitous 
regard to our own experiences, which would only stir 
dust before our eyes, faith sees in Jesus all it wants, and 
straightway exclaims with Job, "My Redeemer !" — with 
Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" — with Paul, " He 
loved me, and gave himself for me /" And with the sweet 
singer of Israel, and the true and good of all times, who 
never tire of harping on that same string. 

II. Job's faith had a strength and consistency that 
amounted to Jcnoirfedge. " I know that my Redeemer 
liveth." not I trust, I hope, or even I believe, but " I 
know." •'■' If we receive the witness of man, the witness 
of God is greater." For this reason, and because that 
witness, or Gospel testimony, is so self-luminous, and so 
adapted to our case, the faith of it is called in the Scrip- 
ture not only the belief but " the knowledge of the truth." 
And the favorite language of truth has ever been "I 
know." Thus Martha, "I know" &c. Thus Paul savs, 



304 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

" I know" &c., and in the same way Job here says, " I 
know that my Eedeemer liveth." Of all knowledge that 
is the deepest, the best, and the last. 

Ah, how many, on this vital theme, have failed to rise 
above the foggy horizon of vague and half-whispered hopes 
to the spiritual empyrean where faith becomes knowledge. 
These vague hopes may suffice while fair weather lasts, but 
the storm, though far less violent than that which beat 
on Job, will snap them like a spider's web. What will it 
avail? " By faith we stand." "By faith we walk." 
By faith we run, "looking unto Jesus." By faith we 
triumph, for the conflict is a "fight of faith," and this is 
the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 
"We "overcome through the blood of the Lamb," or 
through faith in the Redeemer and His ransom. Such 
power lies in the watchword, " I know in whom I have 
believed." 

III. It is thus already manifest that Job's faith was 
of a fibre that was proof against all earthly trial, even to 
the last and worst. Never was man so tried as he, ex- 
cept his Antitype, "the Man of Sorrows." This very 
chapter contains an effecting recital of his woes, culmin- 
ating in the most plantiff of cries (see verses 14-19, 21). 
His barque was fast foundering ; but to him, as to the 
disciples long after, the form of the Eedeemer appeared 
walking on the crest of the billow. With the eye of 
faith he saw him ; with the ear of faith he heard His as- 
suring word, "It is I; be not afraid." And with the 
grasp of faith he clung to Him; not like the sinking 
Peter, with the distracted cry, "Lord save me, I perish !" 
but in the collected repose of his own assured faith, " I 
know that my Eedeemer liveth." He well knew that 
the hand that smote must be the hand to heal. 

IV. It was a faith that triumphed over the fear of 
death ; for, in Job's belief, death was near. The breath 



OLD AGE. 305 

of the grim king was already freezing his vitals. His 
wasted frame seemed to him as ready for the grave as 
the grave, he said, was ready for it. It was an out- 
worn vesture of flesh which fell disease had rent. His 
malady had overspread his body with an envelopment of 
angry sores, whose corroding action, he here tells us, had 
left him no skin except the enamel of his teeth. But 
his faith remained. His consciousness of integrity — 
"that column of true majesty in man" — was as erect 
and stable as ever. He knew that his Eedeemer lived, 
and would stand at the latter day upon the earth, 
Hence he nobly adds : " Though after my skin, worms 
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." 

What an animating example. In Job we have the lot 
of man in its extremes — in its best estate, and in its 
worst. " Look on this picture and on this :" on Job 
the prosperous, and Job the abject. Once, kings might 
have stood awed in his presence, or fallen at his feet, 
and asked his patriarchal benediction ; now, none so poor 
"to do him reverence." Compare chapter xxix : 7-11 
with chapter xix : 13-22. Left alone, yet able to say 
with his Eedeemer, "I am not alone, for my Father is 
with me," he turns from earth to heaven, from man to 
God. Such a time must one day come to us all. Happy 
will it be if it then finds us triumphant with a faith like 
Job's. "Death's terror is the mountain faith removes." 

V. The patriarch's faith assured him of eternal 
blessedness with God, beyond death and the grave. 

First, it embraced the immortality of the soul, and 
its separate and happy existence after death. Instead of 
the expression, "in my flesh," in ver. 26, we prefer the 
marginal rendering "out of my flesh." 

I do not think it is the Eesurrection that is here 
spoken of, but Christ's Incarnation — not His second 
coming, but His first. The other sense is, that Job, no 



306 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

longer in his flesh, but out of it, in his disembodied state 
(the body being now in the grave), should, in his free 
emancipated spirit, see God in heaven. In other words, 
when death came — and Job felt already as one standing 
face to face with death — and when his body should go, as 
his skin had gone before it, into decay and dissolution, 
still there remained his nobler part, his deathless soul, 
which, as spirit with spirit, should be blessed along with 
the redeemed in the pure and celestial vision of God. 

Secondly, Job anticipates with rapture that he would 
then see God to be on his side. Many and grievous were 
the charges his harsh friends had brought against him ; 
he appealed from them all to his Divine Friend in 
Heaven. As he says elsewhere, "My record is in 
Heaven, my witness is on high." The God whom I am 
about to see, when I escape from this wretched flesh, He 
will " bring forth my judgment to the light, and my 
righteousness as the noonday." Now where does Job 
express this ? In verse 27, when rightly rendered, in the 
triumphant words : " Whom I shall see to be for me, and 
not against me." The expression then is, " Whom I shall 
see to be for me, and not to be a stranger or enemy to 
me n — that is, '*' Whom I shall find to be on my side, and 
not like you, my harsh friends, to be against me." Ah, 
what a precious hope, what a glorious alternative ! " If 
God be for us, who can be against us ?" 

It only remains to observe, finally, that Job's hopes of 
bliss all pointed to the glorious vision of God, whom he 
expected to see as his highest good, his reward, his ex- 
ceeding joy, his God, his guide, his portion for ever. 
This constitutes the heaven of heaven that God is there, 
that Christ is there, that the Divine Spirit is there, that 
the Three-One God of Salvation is specially and ever- 
lastingly there. Happy place, and happy patriarch who 
felt sure of it, and of soon being in it ! And happy the 



OLD A OB. 307 

poorest and most toilworn and care-striken of men who, 
while sharing with Job in his trials, shares also his faith ; 
knows his Redeemer ; knows that He has died, and died 
for him ; knows that He lives, and lives for him ; knows 
that His sin-atoning blood has answered for him, being 
shed for him as it was shed for all ; and knows that, 
when death throws open to him the doors into the 
Eternal Kingdom, his soul shall vault out of its prison 
of clay, and be received by Jesus into the many mansions 
of the blest, there to hunger no more, to thirst no more, 
to weep no more, and, better than all, to sin no more, 
but to be a fit subject and citizen, henceforth and for 
ever, 

" In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love, 
"Where entertain him all the saints above, 
♦ In solemn troops and sweet societies, 
That sing, and singing in their glory move, 
And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes." 



TfeE DAY OF THE CHRISTIAN'S HEATH. 

KEY. GEORGE S. INGRAM, 

IN INDEPENDENT CHAPEL, TWICKENHAM, ENGLAND. 

" The day of death is better than the day of one's birth. "— Eccles. 
vii: 1. 

HPHIS statement must be understood not absolutely, 
but conditionally. There are thousands of whom 
only its converse shall be found true. The day of their 
birth was one of hope ; it was the entrance on a life 
which might have been one of true goodness, being one 
of faith on the Son of God, and hence a life of prepara- 
tion for "glory, honor, and immortality/' But the pre- 
cious opportunities of every passing day are being ne~ 



308 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

glected, and the day of death shall be the termination of 
all mercy and hope, and consequently the ruin, beyond 
remedy, of their deathless and priceless souls. Of such 
persons the truth in our text will not hold good ; it is 
applicable only to those who " die unto the Lord," and 
none can do so but those who are simple and sincere be- 
lievers in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and 
the sinner's Saviour. Of none then, save the true Christ- 
ian, can it be correctly affirmed that " The day of death 
is better than the day of one's birth." 

1. This affirmation is true, inasmuch as the day of 
the Christian's death brings deliverance from all suffering 
and grief. Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly up- 
ward. None are exempted from pain and sorrow. The 
day of birth ushers us into a world which has been truly 
called a " vale of tears," but the day of a Christian's death 
is the day that liberates him from all suffering,— and in 
which all tears are forever wiped from his eyes. In 
such a case then, " the day of death is better than the 
day of one's birth." The end of a voyage is better than 
the beginning, especially if it has been a stormy one. 
The dangers of the deep are past, and the shore is now 
reached in safety ; therefore, in this respect, the end of 
a voyage is better than the beginning. And so it is with 
the day of the Christian's birth, and the day of his death. 
But we "look with very different feelings on thedejiarture 
of a follower of Jesus. We feel sorrow, it is true, but it 
is associated with no fears in connection with the de- 
parted ; it is sorrow arising from the consciousness of 
personal loss, — the loss of the society, the counsels, 
and encouragement of the deceased. It is sorrow associ- 
ated with hope, and therefore it gradually ripens into joy. 
As the heart recovers itself from the stunning stroke in- 
flicted by death, it thinks on the state of perfect security 
and peace on which the departed has entered, — a state 



OLD AGE. 309 

wherein scrij - us, ''there shall be no more 

th, neithei yi og, neither shall there 

be any more pain; for the former things are passed 
away." 

2. Our text holds true on another ground, namely, that 
the day of death is the day of fi 
The afflictions which the Christian has to endure, do not 

Jten so much concern in his mind as sin does. Paul, 
although he knew that in everv city, bonds and afflic- 
tions awaited him. could say, " None of these things 
move me. neither count I my life lear unto myself :" 
"hen striving against sin, an 1 feeling f *a law in his 
members warring against the law of his mind, and bring- 
iug him into :• tivity to the law of sin which was in 
his members/'* he was made to cry out, "0 wretched 
man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death ;" The believer's life is one long and arduous 
..:: t sin. From worldly losses >r bereavements, 

and from bodily sufferings we may be for many years 

1 ; but from our warfare with sin we are never for a 
single moment exempted. It is the chief work which 
. _: as to do, for unless we be bringing our 
hearts into subjection to his will. — cherishing tows 
him the " faith which worketh by love/' 7 and growing in 
that "holiness, without which no man shall see the 
Lord f unless there be this inward conformity to the 
image of Christ, no external service can be acceptable to 
God. The spell and power : sin in the heart must 

en if the outward life is to be a living unto the 
Lord. 

The day of the Christian's death is the lay in which 
he obtains a full and final triumph over sin. It is the 
day in which the word of grace in fa a son] is brought 

ion ; and is not that day better than the 
of his birth? I~ n t the day in which the warrior 



310 MEMORIAL TRIBVTM. 

sheaths his victorious sword, puts off his bruised and. 
stained armor, a happier day than the one in which he 
buckled it on ? So surely it is also with every "good 
soldier of Jesus Christ/' 

3. The words of our text are true in the case of Christ's 
followers, because the day of their decease introduces 
them into a state of endless reward. To be beyond the 
reach of all sorrow and. pain, and to be such complete 
victors over sin as to have every thought and feeling of 
the soul in fullest sympathy with God, — this of itself 
would be " joy unspeakable and full of glory.'" But 
there is something even beyond this which the scriptures 
tell us awaits the departed saint. David said to G-od, 
" Oh ! how great is thy goodness which. thou hast laid 
up for them that fear thee ; which thou hast wrought 
for them that trust in thee before the sons of men." 
Peter speaks of "an inheritance incorruptible, and un- 
defiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven. - " 
Isaiah and Paul say, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart T)f man, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him." And 
a Greater than them all has said ; " To him that over- 
cometh, will I graDt to sit with me on my throne, as I 
also overcame, and am set down with my Father on his 
throne." All such passages, with many more which we 
need not cite, plainly declare, that there shall be rewards 
to Christians in heaven. These, we believe, shall be ac- 
cording to the trust and love cherished towards Christ, 
the service done, and the suffering endured, for his sake 
on earth. 

Think what a reward the companionship of heaven 
shall be, " Ye are come," said Paul to the believing 
Hebrews, when speaking by anticipation of the glory and 
certainty of their prospects, — "Ye are come unto Mount 
Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly 



OLD AGE. 311 

Jerusalem, aud to an innumerable company of angels, to 
the general assembly and church of the first-born which 
are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and 
to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the 
Mediator of the new covenant." Think of associating 
with angels, becoming the companions of patriarchs and 
prophets, of apostles and martyrs. With what veneration 
do we read now of those men, " of whom the world was 
not worthy." What an honor and blessing must it be 
then to become the associates of such ; to see them, and 
speak with them face to face, as we converse with our 
familiar friends here. Nor will it be the least delightful 
element in the companionship above, that the godly 
friends we loved on earth shall be all known by ns there. 
What a blessed reward then does the day of death con- 
fer on the believer in Jesus. It ushers him into the pres- 
ence of those whose faces he had often seen on earth, 
with the tones of whose voices he was fondly familiar, and 
with whose intercourse are associated some of thetender- 
est and holiest recollections which memory can retain. 
The fondest and happiest circle of loving ones here is 
never long unbroken, for, as the poet truthfully and 
touchingly says, 

44 There is no flock, however watch'd and tended, 
But one dead lamb is there ! 
There is no fireside, howso'er defended, 
But has one vacant chair." 

And this thought of death and separation creeps, like a 
huge cold shadow, over the sunniest scenes of domestic 
enjoyment. But no such thought can enter the bosom 
of the departed saint when he joins the friends of his 
affection above. And a richer reward than even that 
awaits us, if we live and die unto the Lord. There is 



312 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

One in heaven who " is not ashamed to call us brethren/' 
" a friend who sticketh closer than a brother/' whom we 
have not seen, but around whom our holiest thoughts 
and strongest affections cluster and cling. " We shall 
see Him as he is." We shall gaze unvailed on that 
blessed countenance on which, for us, the dark shadow 
of death once rested, but which is now "as the sun 
shining in his strength." To stand in his presence 
where is "fullness of joy/' or to sit at his right hand, 
where " are pleasures for evermore," is the consumma- 
tion of every aspiration and hope which the regenerated 
spirit can cherish. JSTo wish can soar higher than this ; 
and surely the day that fulfills it is better than the day 
of the most auspicious birth. 

For all this information we are indebted to Jesus 
Christ alone. He "hath brought life and immortality to 
light in the gospel." His death is the only " propitiation 
for our sins," by which he has obtained for us an en- 
trance into heaven, and has thereby spoiled death of its 
sting. Hence, it is said, that he "hath abolished death;" 
and Himself declared, " Whosoever liveth and believeth 
on me, shall never die." To the Christian "there is no 
death ; what seems so is transition." The lifeless body 
is laid in the grave, but it rests in the sure hope of a 
blessed resurrection ; and the ransomed and liberated 
spirit, the moment its " earthly house of this tabernacle 
\s dissolved, has a building of God, an house not made 
with hands, eternal in the heavens." This is what we call 
ieath to the believer. And oh, how fitted it is to com- 
fort and heal our mourning and wounded hearts, when 
bereft of those we loved, and who loved Christ too. 
" They are not lost, but only gone before ; and are now 
realizing to the full, the truth of our text, — "The day 
of death is better than the day of one's birth." 



OLD AGE. 313 



HEAVEN WARNING EARTH. 

T. RAFFLES, D.D. 

AT THE FUNERAL OP REV. WILLIAM ROBY, AN AGED MINISTER. 

The voice said cry, and lie said, What shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, 
&c— Isa. 40: 6. 

TDRETHREN : 

There are seasons when the heart is too full for 
utterance, and the lips inadequate to express what the 
spirit feels. Such is the present moment. We must not 
be so absorbed in grief for the dead, as entirely to forget 
what we owe to the living. " The voice said, Cry, Cry, 
and he said, what shall I cry ? All flesh is grass, and all 
the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field ; the 
grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of God 
endureth for ever." 

My Christian friends, you have often heard the voice 
of our departed friend speaking to you from this place, 
with all that affectionate earnestness by which his public 
labors were so pre-eminently characterized, of the things 
which belong to your everlasting peace ; and many of 
you have, I fear, up to this time, remained unmoved and 
unimpressed. Hear that voice once again — it is the last 
time — it speaks to you from the bed of death, from the 
open grave. Hear it ! " Prepare to meet thy God \" 
You must meet him ! Every one in this vast assembly 
must meet him in death and at judgment. You know that 
He will bring you to death, and to the house appointed 
for all living. Of all the millions that have lived, from 
the first of men to the present moment, only two have 
escaped the stroke of death ; and you cannot be so infat- 
uated as to imagine that there are any circumstances 
in your case so peculiar as that the third exception to 
14 



314 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

the general rule should be in your favour. No, you 
know that yon must die. To each and every one of you 
there is ' ' a time to be born, and a time to die:" — the 
first is past, the second is to come ; and the same certain- 
ty rests on both. It may not be this year, or for many 
years : it may be at some distant period ; but the time 
will come when the prophetic announcement will be re- 
alized in your case — "This year thou shalt die." If I 
could read the names of all here who will yet be summoned 
this year to the bar of God, what a sensation would be 
excited ! How every eye would be fixed on the fatal 
scroll, and every ear intent on the sad recital, anxious to 
discover whether his name or that of his nearest friend 
would be found included in the catalogue. What would 
this prove but the consciousness of the deep interest you 
individually possess in that solemn and momentous 
event ? Why, then, deceive yourselves any longer ! Why 
attempt to put off the consideration of an event that will 
certainly happen to all, and by which all are lost if it 
come upon them unawares and find them unprepared. 
" What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world 
and lose his own soul \" The soul once lost, is lost for 
ever. The treasures of a thousand worlds cannot be 
compared with the value of one immortal soul. Though 
you should have the gold of Ophir, the mines of Peru, 
the gems of India, the spices of Arabia, and the cedars 
of Lebanon ; though you should call these, and the king- 
doms and merchandise of this world, all your own, with 
all their pomp, and majesty, and glory, what would they 
avail if you lost your soul ? " What shall a man give in 
exchange for his soul ?" Then, let me entreat your 
attention to this solemn question. Are you prepared to 
die ? I ask all and each in this vast assembly — are you 
prepared to die ? 

And what is it to die ? Men talk of death as the 



OLD AGE. 315 

king of terrors ; and they are correct if they mean that 
death is encompassed with terrors of the most tremen- 
dous sort. Men talk of death as the debt of nature, as 
though in the payment of this debt, all were settled, and 
the balance between man and existence were closed for 
ever. But this is a rash and nnscriptural way of speak- 
ing of death ! What, then, is death ? It is the separa- 
tion of the soul from the body, not final but temporary, 
not eternal but for a season. As it regards the body, it 
is the extinction of the vital principle ; it is disorgani- 
zation, ruin, decay, corruption. " The dust returns to 
the earth, from whence it came, but the spirit returns 
to God who gaye it/' There is hope of a tree if it be 
cut down," that other springs will behold its verdure, 
other autumns its fruit. " But man dies and wasteth 
away, and giveth up the ghost, and where is he ?" You 
look on a cold and lifeless body ; you touch it, and per- 
ceive that corruption soon begins its work ; all its sym- 
metry and vigor soon disappears ; the countenance that 
was wont to beam with intelligence and love, is dull and 
inanimate. That is death : but that is not all death. If 
you would know what death is, you must mark the disrup- 
tion of every earthly tie ; you must mark the spirit and fol- 
low it to an unseen world ; you must mark the character 
and circumstances of its unalterable condition there; 
and then, when you have heard its sentence, and listened 
to its doom, you will know what death is. 

But why must all men die ? Because " all have 
sinned, and come short of the glory of God." "By one 
man sin entered into 'the world, and death by sin." Men 
talk of the dignity of human nature, and are offended 
at us if we speak of sin ; and yet dare not charge the 
Deity with caprice or injustice. But, is it not unjust to 
inflict punishment on innocence ? If man were not a 
sinner, would he die ? Would not his innocence be his 



316 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

security ? Would not man be saved from death if he 
were innocent ? All have sinned, and, therefore, all must 
die, and stand at His tribunal. It is sin that has ren- 
dered this world a vast mausoleum, and converted Eden 
into a gloomy Golgotha. But those that place their 
trust and confidence in the Mediator, shall never die, for 
he took upon himself our nature, paid the penalty which 
we had incurred, entered the grave, ascended upon high, 
and " led captivity captive," that he might be the resur- 
rection of life. 

Do you ask me what are the consequences of death ? 
1 say to the man who tramples under foot the Son of 
God, who will not flee for shelter to the cross, the conse- 
quences must be tremendous, beyond the power of 
language to describe, or imagination to conceive. But 
the man who believes in the mediation of Christ, when 
summoned before the dread tribunal, to him the conse- 
quences of death are gloriously transporting ! For "eye 
hath not seen, nor car heard, neither hath it entered 
into the heart of man to conceive what God hath laid 
up in store for them that love him." I would now press 
my question again ; are you prepared to die ? Do you 
lay hold on Christ as the only ground of your hope ? 
"Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the 
end of that man is peace." 

Xever was this declaration more strikingly illustrated 
than in the death of our departed friend. Those who 
watched round his pillow, could not tell the precise mo- 
ment when he expired. His lips and eyes seemed closed 
in peaceful slumber. There was no indication of ap- 
proaching death ; no pang, no struggle, no sigh ; only 
the respiration became less and less ; and whilst the 
medical attendant watched his last moments, his pulsa- 
tion ceased altogether ; and even then he could not be- 
lieve that existence had closed, till he had laid his hand 



OLD AGE. 317 

upon his heart, and found that it had ceased to beat. It 
must be a delightful reflection for all who enjoyed his 
pastoral labors, that he was able to preach once every 
sabbath, except the last. On the morning of New Year's 
day, he had attended the prayer-meeting, and keenly felt 
the severity of the season. On the following sabbath, 
he administered the sacrament of the Lord's supper, 
though with difficulty, and preached his thirty-fifth an- 
nual sermon to the young people, instructed in the Sun- 
day-school attached to the church. He was urged not 
to do so, but his heart was set on it. It was his last work, 
and when it was done, he said, in the expiring words of 
the Saviour, " it is finished !" He was carried home in 
a sedan chair, never to come out again. He came down 
stairs as usual through the week ; but on the sabbath 
kept his bed, and next morning he rested from his labors. 
" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord/' 

Now, my dear friends, who have been permitted to 
sit under the ministry of our departed brother, this dis- 
pensation speaks volumes of admonition and instruction 
to you. Not one of all the sermons he preached, shall 
be lost; nor shall his faithful testimony fall to the 
ground as respects any one of you. If not " the savor 
of life unto life," it will be "the savor of death unto 
death." Grod forbid, as it respects any one of us, that he 
should feel the latter. I beseech you, ponder on the 
things which belong to your everlasting peace, ere they 
be for ever hid from your eyes. 

Men, brethren, fathers ! I, as a dying man, speak to 
to you who are dying around me, and I charge you this 
day " before God, and before the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing," 
that you "give all diligence to make your calling and 
election sure," that so you may be found of him in 
peace. 



318 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Now let us go to the place of sepulture, and bury our 
dead out of our sight. Let us take his precious dust and 
lay it in the grave, in the sure and certain hope of a joy- 
ful resurrection. 



J 



THE BELIEVEK'S CONFIDENCE. 

REV. EDWARD PARSONS, OF LEEDS, ENGLAND. 

ON THE DEATH OF REV. JOHN HYATT. 

llcnow . . . that in my flesh I shall see God. — Job xix: 26. 

OB uttered the words which I have just read. He 
enjoyed the thought of dying ; he looked to his 
death as connected with the highest and sublimest con- 
solations. Job, indeed, appears to have had no resource 
but in God — no hope but in the thought of that day 
when he should see God, and see him in his then suffer- 
ing body. 

The subject on which I mean to dwell, with a view 
to your instruction and comfort is, this : The believ- 
er's CONFIDENCE IN THE DOMINION OF CHRIST OVER 
THE LAST ENEMY DEATH. 

I. The subjection of the body to the dominion of 
death. 

1. Man is essentially composed of a material body, of 
an immaterial soul. The soul and the body are closely 
and inseparably united for the life that now is. But 
this union of body and soul must be dissolved. 

The period when this dissolution of the union be- 
tween the soul and the body may take place, is unknown, 
is uncertain to us; but it is fixed, irrevocably fixed by 
the decree of the supreme Arbiter of life and death. 

In the dissolution of the union now subsisting be- 
tween the soul and the body, death takes possession of 



OLD AGE. 319 

the body as his own lawful prey ; and consigns it to his 
own prison, the dark and loathsome grave ; and there 
he holds it in captivity till the morning of the resurrec- 
tion ; that morning in which the captive shall be 
delivered — in which Jesus will triumph gloriously as the 
Resurrection and the Life, over all the power of death. 
The apostle, referring to the dominion of death over the 
body, calls it a " vile body." It is vile in its origin — in its 
subjection to loathsome disease, and tormenting pain — 
in reference to the dust to which it must be consigned at 
the last ; for it must be the prey of death and of worms. 
In the 49th Psalm it is said, "Death shall feed on them, 
and their beauty shall consume in the grave." 

Die we must ; our bodies humanly speaking must be 
divided into particles, and so scattered as to preclude the 
possibility of a union of these particles. But though we 
acknowledge this to be impossible with man, it is possi- 
ble to God. It is no "incredible thing" that God 
should raise the dead, though these particles were scat- 
tered to the remotest parts of earth. 

II. The subjection of death to the dominion of Christ. 

" He must reign till he hath put all enemies under 
his feet" — "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is 
Death." Jesus Christ came into the world to "destroy 
death, and him that had the power of death." Jesus 
Christ now lives in the character of a Redeemer to ac- 
complish this work. Jesus Christ will come at the ap- 
pointed day to complete the work, and to destroy death, 
and him that had the power of death, for ever. "Unto 
them that look for him shall he appear the second time, 
without sin, unto salvation." It is necessary that he 
should thus appear ; it is certain that he will thus appear. 
When he thus comes, then, every grave shall yield up its 
deposit ; every body, wherever deposited, shall rise at 
his word, and shall stand in his presence. 



320 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

This resurrection of the dead will be universal. 
" All that are in the grave shall come forth :" come 
forth to the resurrection of the life eternal, or the resur- 
rection of damnation. Not an individual body can be 
lost ; all, all must rise again \ all, all must appear before 
him. 

Then I add — this resurrection, this great and wonder- 
ful change, is ascribed to the mighty power of Christ 
the Eedeemer. (See Phil, iii : 21.) And there is some- 
thing, I think, very interesting and affecting in the 
order of the resurrection in the last day. In 1 Thess. 
iv : 16, it is said, " the dead in Christ shall rise first ;" 
that is, they shall rise, and be changed, before they are 
changed who shall then be found living upon earth. 

III. Observe the character in which the Lord Jesus 
will assert his dominion over the last enemy. 

1. Job says, " In my flesh I shall see God." He had 
before said, " I know that my Redeemer liveth ;" the Re- 
deemer and God then are the same. In 2 Cor. v. 10, it 
is said, " We must all appear before the judgment-seat of 
Christ;" and John says, "I saw the dead, small and 
great, stand before God." Then Christ is God. Were 
he not God, could he raise the dead ? Could he effect 
this great and wonderful change on the body, which we 
have described ? Could he sentence the guilty to hell ? 
Could he exalt the justified to eternal life and glory in 
his own presence ? Oh, no ! All this is the work of 
God ; and Christ is God. 

2. He w(ll assert his dominion over death as God the 
Redeemer. As the Redeemer of men he was early re- 
vealed ; and as the Redeemer of men he early commenced 
his work of redemption. The revelation of his character, 
and the commencement of his work, must be dated from 
the fall of man. No sooner did man fall, than Christ 
was revealed. From the first revelation of his redeeming 



OLD AGE. 321 

love, he began to deliver from the curse of the law — 
from the tyranny of Satan — from the thraldom of sin — 
from the bondage of this present evil world — from the 
fear of death, and from death itself, as " the Resurrec- 
tion and the life.'" 

This work of redemption displays all that is interest- 
ing in his character, and all that is endearing in the dis- 
pensations of his goverment. See these three things. 

(i.) There was an infinite Love in the price of Re- 
demption. For we are redeemed u with the precious 
blood of Christ." 

(ii.) There is Omnipotent power in the application of 
this work. Your knowledge of Christ as a Redeemer — 
your fellowship with Christ as a Redeemer — all you re- 
ceive from him — all you hope with reference to his eter- 
nal presence in the heavenly world ; all must be ascribed 
to the power of his Spirit. That power made you what 
you are, and by it you are kept through faith unto salva- 
tion. 

(iii. ) There ivill be Immutable Fidelity in the comple- 
tion of this worh. For God the Redeemer, who began 
the good work among you, will carry it on. His work in 
the hearts of his people, and in the world, will termi- 
nate in absolute and everlasting perfection and blessed- 
ness. 

Here let me make some application. Wliat a source 
of consolation is this, in all the changes of the ivorld, in 
all the losses we may sustain. Here, too, is a source of 
consolation to all bereaved families. This day has exhib- 
ited a very melancholy appearance ; it has been sacred as 
a day of mourning. But let us compose and comfort 
ourselves. Has God taken away the companion of our 
lives, or chief earthly support and comfort, the desire of 
our eyes, at a stroke ? Have we been bereaved of the 
child of our hopes ? Are the objects of our tenderest 
14* 



322 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

affections numbered with the dead ? in the midst of 
death in your houses, and death in your religious con- 
nections. look to Him that ever liveth ! Whoever 
dies, God the Eedeemer lives ! Whatever earthly com- 
forts are taken, He can still give you others. Whatever 
friend may die, that friend never dies, never changes ! 
He ever lives — lives for you, and lives in you. 

IV. The final triumph of Christ over death will con- 
stitute the final happiness of all the redeemed. The text 
admits of two senses. 

1. / shall see God my Eedeemer in this my lody. 
The day of resurrection is a real and not a metaphorical 
period. A real body will be raised ; the same body in 
form and substance as that which was deposited in the 
grave. Job, therefore, says, "In my flesh I shall see 
God." In my suffering, dying, vile body, I shall see my 
Eedeemer ; these eyes shall behold him, and be eternally 
contemplating him in glory. 

2. " I shall see God in my flesh. I shall see God my 
Eedeeemer in that flesh which he assumed to become 
my Eedeemer. That body in which he was subject to 
hunger, thirst and weariness ; that body in which he was 
so degraded upon earth ; in which he agonized in the 
garden and on the cross ; in which he was so insulted, 
tormented and crucified on Calvary. I shall see him 
in that body in which he suffered to effect my redemp- 
tion. 

And observe another thing : I shall see him for my- 
self. I shall see him as my own Eedeemer — I shall see 
him in perfection. Now I see through a glass, darkly ; 
but then, face to face, as he is, not through a medium, 
I shall see him in all his unveiled, unclouded glory. 
And this vision will be connected with infinite joy ; and 
the joy of the vision will be consummated in a perfect 






OLD AGE. 323 

conformity to him ; for I shall be changed into the same 
image. 

You know "what onr friend was in life ; and now you 
have heard what he was in death. 

You see what religion is ? You see what comforts 
and supports it affords ! Here is a man who suffered as 
much as mortality could well bear, with all the ardor 
which characterized his ministry, breathing out his soul 
in full submission to the will of God ! 

I will only add, 

" Let me die the death of such a righteous man ; and 
let my last end be like his I" And may you all die such 
a death, and come to such an end ! 



PRAYER FOR WISDOM IN VIEW OF DEATH. 

REV. T. RAFFLES, D.D. LL.D., LIVERPOOL, EiTGLAKD. 

AT THE FUNERAL OP DR. M'ALL MANCHESTER, ENGLAND. 

" Lord so teach us to number our days, that ice may apply our Tiearts 
unto wisdom" — Ps. xc. : 12. 

T3ERHAPS there is no portion of the Holy Writ more 
instructive than the touching confession of 
which the text forms a part. In considering these 
words, we may confine ourselves to that bearing of them 
which appears best adapted to produce those impressions, 
which, at a moment like the present, we ought to be 
most anxious to secure. To be able to apply our hearts 
to wisdom, and rightly number our days, ought to be J 
the great business of life ; for it is the chief end of man. 
But if this be deserving of your chief attention — if this 
consideration ought to work upon your conduct through 
life — if death should surprise you destitute of this prep- 
aration, imagine how deep — how bitter, yet unavailing, 



324 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

will be your regret that you did not attend to it, while 
there was yet time. How then you will mourn with the 
lost, and cry out in the anguish of your spirit — ' Foolish 
that I was, how did I hate instruction, and turn from 
the ways of wisdom when it might have been of avail/ — 

There are two things which demand our attention, in 
considering this text : — 

I. The lesson to be learned. This psalm is entitled 
" A Psalm of Moses," so that it was a composition of the 
Jews, as early as the deliverance out of Egypt. It was 
composed about the time when the faithless spies 
brought the news of the children of Anak being in Ca- 
naan, when the people murmured, and God's anger was 
kindled at their unbelief and rebellion, and He resolved 
that they should not enjoy the promised land, but fall in 
the wilderness. At this time, it is presumed, the limit 
of man's years was confined to about seventy : while 
only Moses and Isaac, and Jacob lived to a greater age. 
On this occasion it was, and under these circumstances, 
that this beautiful psalm, settingforth the fleeting nature 
of human life, was composed. It is unquestionably one 
of the most impressive lessons on this momentous subject 
in the sacred volume. 

Mark both the matter and the manner of the lesson. 
First, the matter. It is, " to number our days '" and it 
is "so to number them " — in a way so judicious and use- 
ful — "as to apply our hearts unto wisdom." How is 
this, then, to be done ? How are we to number our 
days ? Not by an arithmetical calculation of them — not 
by counting them up so as to be able to say — "I have 
lived so many days." Little skill would be required to 
do this, and the labor, if applied to no other purpose, 
would be little worth. Nor does it consist of an attempt 
to calculate the years we have yet to live — a vain effort to 
pry into the secrets of futurity. No sage has ever 



OLD AGE. 325 

learned the art of calculating or ascertaining this ; and 
every attempt to plunge into that futurity which God 
has veiled from our sight is as futile as it is impious ; 
nor would I give much concern, nor vainly endeavor to 
estimate the days we have to live. This is not the lesson 
inculcakd ; but by "numbering our days" in the text, 
is meant the deep and due consideration of them — what 
they are — whence they come — whither they are pending 
— how they are employed — what will be their final issue, 
and their grand result. " So teach us to number our 
days," and thus we shall "learn to apply our hearts to 
wisdom." 

Consider their brevity. It seems but yesterday that 
we began to live, and yet with the youngest of us a great 
portion of life is gone — with many of us more than half 
of our days are past, and with some of us nearly all ! 

In " numbering your days " consider your vanities. 
With what foolish and vain pursuits the days are for the 
most part occupied ! What multitudes there are whose 
days are spent in idleness, discord, and profligacy ! 
They sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind. Who 
could expect a different harvest from such seed ? Surely 
evil man, at his best estate, is all vanity, and the works 
of men are vanity. They undertake difficult enterprizes 
in foreign countries and acquire fame ! but what is it ? 
Vanity. The pursue abstruse studies, and they attain 
to literary renown, and survive in their writings. What 
is it all ? Vanity. They rise up early, and sit up late, 
and eat the bread of anxiety and amass wealth. What 
is it ? Vanity. They attain to fame, and obtain the ob- 
jects of their ambition — they are loaded with honors, 
their names become associated with heraldry, and their 
deeds become the subjects of history. But what is it 
all ? Vanity. In fact, all the objects and pursuits of 
life will be in vain if we have not a regard for the salva- 



326 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

tion of the soul. Amongst the numberless objects of 
life this constitutes the "one thing needful." To ac- 
complish this ought to be the great business of life. 

II. Consider the manner of this lesson we have to leam. 
( * Teach us to number our days ;" and all of us here are 
left without excuse, if we neglect to obey the injunction. 
In the sacred Word we are admonished on the shortness 
of human life and the rapid approach of eternity. 
" Few have the days of my life been (says Jacob), and I 
have not attained unto the days of the years of my 
fathers." The prophets teach us this too. " The voice 
said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry ? All flesh is 
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of 
the field." The apostles teach us this. " For what is 
your life ?" says James; "It is even a vapor that ap- 
peareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." The 
Redeemer teaches us, " Watch therefore, for ye know 
neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man 
cometh." "And what I have said unto you I say unto 
all, Watch." But oh, how slow at heart are we, and un- 
willing to profit by these admonitions. And yet we 
might read lessons on mortality in every page of Scrip- 
ture. 

God teaches it us by the promises of the Gospel, the 
whole of which rest upm the fact of the resurrection of 
Jesus Christ. So that every saying you hear, if it be 
constituted on evangelical principles, is addressed to us 
as dying men, and exhibits Christ as the End of life, the 
Conqueror of death, the Opener of the grave, in whom 
" whosoever believe th, though he were dead yet shall he 
live," " and he that liveth and believe th in Him shall 
never die." 

God teaches us this Jesson by the means of providence. 
We are dying daily in the persons of our kindred and ac- 
quaintance. Every day some tie that binds us to life is 



OLD AGE. 327 

bursting as it brings us nearer to that which must wit- 
ness our own dissolution ; and he that liyes the longest 
only lives to witness the greater desolation — to wander 
like a lonely being in the midst of society, to sigh and 
grieve over all he loved and knew, now hid from his 
sight. 

He teaches us by night. The ebbing of the tide, the 
setting of the sun, the waning of the moon, the revolv- 
ing of the seasons, the interchange of day and night — 
pleasant as they are — all admonish us that they are made 
as fitting memorials to us that our time is brief: — 

" For soon the spring of youth is past, 

Our manhoocVs summer sheds its bloom ; 
Then age, like autumn's chilling blast, 
Brings on the winter of the tomb." 

Nor can we pass through the streets without finding 
admonitions such as these — the windows closed to inti- 
mate that death has been an inmate there — the hatch- 
ment placed over the door to intimate the honors of 
some one to whom the pomp of heraldry is nothing now 
— the passing bell to inform us that another soul has 
entered the eternal world. All these speak the same 
truth, and impress the same lesson — urge upon us the 
same great duty ; and it is that to which we are directed 
in our text : — " So teach us to number our days, that we 
may apply our hearts unto wisdom." Everything is 
admonitory. The rooms of our houses are adorned by 
portraits of persons who have long since ceased to 
breathe. Our libraries contain books which are the 
writings of men, who being dead yet speak. And when 
we repair in solitude to our cabinets, every letter — every 
lock of hair — every token of remembrance, tells us of 
the death of some one we loved, and warns us to prepare. 
We are then without excuse if we fail to learn the lesson 



328 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

which teaches us " to number our days ;" and yet how 
vain all these admonitions are, if religion has not 
stamped her impress upon the heart ! 

III. The end to which, when learned, this lesson is to 
be applied. Alas ! my brethren, we may so number our 
days as to apply our hearts to folly. We may so mis- 
understand and pervert the lessons which are given us, 
as to turn them into a curse ; and every day we make 
them a swift witness against us. We may so number 
our days as to say with the fool — "Let us eat, drink, 
and be merry, for to-morrow we die." 

Oh, suffer me to ask you this all-absorbing, this 
momentous question — are you interested in Christ ? 
Dost thou believe on the Son of God ? Have } r ou a new 
heart, and as a necessary consequence a holy life ? Oh ! 
do you walk with God in sweet communion here on 
earth ? If not, be assured that your heart is not right 
in the sight of God, and all your pretense to piety is as 
" sounding brass and tinkling cymbals." Oh ! if my 
departed brother could now hear me, he would say — 
"Yes, thus I preached, thus you preach, and thus we 
must all preach if we would render up our account with 

joy." 

It inculcates the wisdom of making the best use of 
our time. To have labored for the good of others and 
to the glory of God, this is the true wisdom. Time is 
invaluable. It is more precious than rubies. It cannot 
be purchased. Every moment should be fully occupied 
in engagements worthy of our attention as rational 
creatures and heirs of immortality. Every moment 
should be employed in doing good, and it is wonderful 
how much may be accomplished by the judicious ar- 
rangement of time. What hours, days, months, and 
years may be created out of the fragments of time which 
many idle, thoughtless persons throw away in useless 



OLD AGE. 329 

amusements — in sleep that rather injures than in- 
vigorates. Qh ! that they understood these things — that 
they would consider the value of their time. 

It includes the wisdom of improving all the means of 
grace and all the dispensations of providence, our sab- 
baths and seasons of worship and prayer, our opportu- 
nities of retirement, our books of instruction and advan- 
tages. Our diseases, infirmities, calamities, bereave- 
ments, are all means of grace — dispensations of provi- 
dence, to be cultivated and improved, and are capable of 
yielding beneficial results. 

Lastly, it includes the employing faithfully the talents 
committed to our trust. Of these every man has a por- 
tion, however few or many. But though you have only 
one, or only half a one — bear in mind that it must be 
managed carefully ; that one, that half, must be em- 
ployed so that He who gave it may receive it again with 
usury. It is not enough that you do not use it. It is 
required, that you employ it with as much care as though 
He had given you a number ; and not as tli3 servant 
"who wrapt it in a napkin and hid it in the earth." 
Your talents then, whether consisting of property, ge- 
nius, station or time, must not be wasted ; but diligently 
and faithfully employed, while you look conscientiously 
for that which is to render the keeping of those talents 
subservient to His glory. And as you learn to ' i number 
your days," learn also the wisdom of withdrawing as 
much as possible your affections from earthly possessions, 
whatever they may be. Oh,, how uncertain they are ! 
We cannot ensure them a single hour. The man of 
wealth says, as he surveys his splendid estate "There is 
much goods laid up in store for the morrow ; eat, drink 
and be merry/' Lo ! a voice is heard — " Thou fool, this 
night thy soul shall be required of thee \" Oh, nothing 
here is certain ! There is no tie so strong that death will 



330 MEMORIAL TMBUTES. 

not dissolve it. It is true wisdom, then, to transfer our 
affections from things temporal to the things of eternity. 

And now let us turn from these reflections to dwell 
for a few moments, on the memory of that honored and 
illustrious individual, by whose removal in the meridian 
of his days and the zenith of his power we have now been 
called together. 

Under any ordinary circumstances, it would be ex- 
pected to give some estimate of the talents and endow- 
ments of that departed saint, whose memory we have met 
to improve. But I feel, in the present instance, no such 
unreasonable expectation will be entertained ; nor would 
you highly esteem the modesty of the individual who 
should entertain such a favorable opinion of his own 
competency for the task. Suffice it to say — such splen- 
did talents and vast and varied acquirements have rarely, 
if ever, been seen in common with such unaffected mod- 
esty, genuine humility, piety, and ardent devotion of 
every faculty to God. But, by the moral qualities of 
his heart, and those amiable and Christian graces that 
dignified his character, even the intellectual greatness of 
his genius was transcended and surpassed. With what 
meekness and child-like simplicity — with what satisfac- 
tion would he sit at the feet of the humblest of his 
brethren, to learn more of his Saviour and of the cross ! 
To that cross he clung for support. On that cross he 
took his stand. On that cross he fixed the firm, the 
steady/ and exclusive grasp of his faith. Beside that 
cross he determined to abide — a determination he never 
ceased to realize. He determined to know nothing else 
as the burden of his discourses. With that theme he be- 
gan — with that theme he advanced— with that theme, 
with the cross, he triumphed ; and, under its hallowed 
influence, he lived and died, in the utmost height of a 
well-earned celebrity, in the zenith of his usefulness, with 



OLD AGE. 331 

a reputation unblemished, and a character without 
spot ; and now that cross is the theme of his exultations 
and the burden of his songs in heaven ! 

And now, my beloved and honored and generous 
friend — farewell. Be . it my aim to follow in thy career 
of usefulness. My days like thine may be short ; but if 
it may be mine to meet thee in the realms of glory, very 
plenty have they been to me. Those that were dear 
to thee shall be dear to me. Thy afflicted widow and or- 
phan boy shall be dear to me, as they were to thee. To 
them I tender all those feelings of sympathy and regard 
for their happiness, which my heart would dictate, but 
my faltering tongue may not express. Farewell! I feel 
an oppressive sense of loneliness. But there is One who 
watches over and will support us, and who has said, 
" Lo ! I am with you always ; be thou faithful unto 
death, and I will give thee a crown of life." 



HOLY ARDOR AFTER A HEAVENLY STATE. 

REV. CHARLES HYATT. 

AT THE TABERNACLE, CITY ROAD, LONDON. 

1 ' 1 pray thee, let me go over and see the good land that is beyond 
Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." — Deft, iii: 25. 

VVTHAT an interesting sight to behold an old man, 
whose grey heirs and tottering limbs tell you that 
he once "bore the burden and heat of the day," but 
that he is now past labor, and is hastening to " the house 
appointed for all living." 

When we contemplate such an aged man, under the 
idea of "an old disciple," one who can say with Oba- 
diah, " I, thy servant, fear the Lord from my youth f 
then we look upon him with pleasure ; then we unite to 



332 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

say with Solomon, " the hoary head is a crown of glory," 
seeing it is "found in the way of righteousness." Then we 
reflect on the glorious orb of day, and remark, "the 
path of the just is as the shining light, shining more and 
more unto the pertect day." Then, we turn our atten- 
tion to the harvest field, and think on the good old man 
" coming to his grave in a full age, like as a shock 
of corn cometh in his season." Then we mark the 
stately vessel entering into port with its rich 
lading all safe and its colors flying, after a long and 
tempestuous voyage, and we hear the apostle saying, — 
" so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly 
into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, 
Jesus Christ." 

Well, such an old man is now set before you in the 
character of Moses. Picture to yourselves this man of God. 
He was "a hundred and twenty years old ; his eye was 
not dim, nor his natural force abated." See him on 
this side Jordan, reminding the people in the camp 
that they were about to go over to take possession of the 
promised land, and encouraging Joshua to lead them ! 
See him, full of days, full of zeal, full of grace, and pray- 
ing as in the text, "Let me go over and see the good 
land that is beyond Jordan, that goodty mountain, and 
Lebanon." 

This prayer of Moses regarded the land of Canaan, 
which Jehovah had promised to Abraham and his de- 
scendants the Israelites. But that "goodly land " was 
a type of heaven ; and viewing it as such, we can easily 
conceive of an aged saint, as he stands on the verge of 
another world, contemplating heaven as "the promised 
inheritance," where "the wicked cease from troubling, 
and the weary are at rest ;" and praying with Moses, " I 
pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land that is 
beyond Jordan, that goodly land, and Lebanon." View- 



OLD AGE. 333 

ing it in this light, we may consider the passage used 
under the New Testament dispensation, as expressive of 
holy ardor after a heavenly state. And we will in- 
quire, 

I. From what principle does this desire after a heav- 
enly state arise ? 

I. The love of life is natural to man. It is a principle 
which the God of nature has implanted in the breast of 
all living beings, rational and irrational. The Christian 
religion cherishes this natural love of life, and says to 
every man, " Do thyself no harm !" At the same time 
it unfolds to our view immortality and everlasting life , 
removes from its genuine partakers the fear of death ; 
and inspires the soul with a holy " desire to depart and 
be with Christ, which is far better." Thus while nature 
cherishes the love of life, Christianity enables us to rise 
above it. 

This desire after heaven arises : 

9. From having formed a right estimate of the present 
world. — He has passed through the world, and that not 
as a cynic ; he has mixed in the world's society, he has 
tasted some of its pleasures, he has acquired some of its 
riches,hehas enjoyed some of its esteem; in all these things 
"the lines may have fallen to him in pleasant places." 
Yet, by the grace of God, he has been taught to see that 
"vanity of vanities" is inscribed " on all the world calls 
good or great." He leaves it to the worldly-minded, the 
merely natural man, to say of this world, " thou art all 
my desire, thou art my God!" His soul, born from above, 
seeks heaven as its natural element, and heavenly things 
as its only portion ; and he still prays with Moses, "I 
beseech thee, let me go over and see the good land that 
is beyond Jordan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon." 
This desire arises, 

%, From having realized the blessing of true religion. 



334 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

There is such a thing as true enjoyment in religion. " 
taste and see that the Lord is good," is an Old Testament 
expression ; and the New Testament expression is equiva- 
lent to it, "as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of 
the word, that ye may grow thereby ; if so be ye have 
tasted that the Lord is gracious." . This is what we call 
real religion, and it is this which excites such ardent 
desires after heaven. 

What is heaven ? What is the spiritual idea of heaven ? 
It is the full enjoyment of our heavenly Father's face. 
We shall see Him as he is, through the medium of his 
Son Jesus Christ, the Lamb that was slain. 

What is heaven f It is a tranquillized mind : an 
eternal and undisturbed peace with God, arising from 
the assurance that sin is pardoned, and that God is 
reconciled. This is the result of justification. 

What is heaven ? — It is joy arising from a happy 
union to the " spirits of the just made perfect" You 
have, doubtless, had a foretaste, of this heaveuly enjoy- 
ment when united in church fellowship : when around 
the Lord's table, you have felt that you were all one in 
Christ, and united in spirit to all "the excellent of the 
earth." These, and many other enjoyments of true, 
believers, have a strong resemblance to the enjoyments 
of the heavenly state. And having had these foretastes, 
the soul is on the wing for full possession. " Give me 
this water, that I thirst not !" All who have tasted the 
enjoyments of real religion upon earth will say, " I pray 
thee let me go over, and see the good land that is beyond 
Jordan, that goodly mountain and Lebanon." This de- 
sire arises, 

3. From strong faith in the unspotted honor and in- 
tegrity of Him who has promised this good land to us. 
The Christian believes that God has graciously revealed 
of this heavenly state. It was faith in God's promise 



OLD AGE. 335 

which inspired the Israelites to proceed on their march 
through the wilderness. The same principle had before 
actuated their great progenitor Abraham : he firmly 
believed what God had told him ; and hence, ' ( he went 
out, not knowing whither he went/' When the Israelites 
went out, they knew not the road ; but Jehovah had 
promised to guide them, and the cloud and pillar were 
with them through all their journey. 

Well, Christian, aged Christian, you are going to 
heaven, to the land of which the Lord hath said, " I will 
give it to you/' Of you it shall be said, as it was of the 
patriarchs, " They went forth to go into the land of 
Canaan ; and into the land of Canaan they came/' 

Thus, you see the man, you see his hold of heaven. 
You hear him expressing his desire, and you find from 
what it arises. Is the character, is the desire yours f 
Are you thus " bringing forth fruit in old age ?" Do 
you thus long to depart, and to be with Christ, which is 
far better ? If so, there will be proofs and evidences, 
which I proceed to point out, 

II. What are the evidences of your truly desiring a 
heavenly state? 

1. Earth loses its attraction. — Brethren, I fear many 
of you must say with the poet, 

u This world has many charms for mel" 

Yes, it has many charms : its influence is wonderfully 
attractive : it draws, and many of you run after. But 
not so the old saint ; not so the aged Christian ripe for 
glory. He resists the influence : he says to the world, 
"Farewell! let me go ; I seek a better, that is, a 
heavenly country." 

This is not the language of the busy tradesman, of 
the man who has determined to be rich, whose plans are 
laid, but not as yet accomplished. 



336 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

This is not the language of the votary of pleasure. 
No ; the " lover of pleasure more than of God," is per- 
petually crying out, "Who will show me any good ?" 

Nor is it the language of the old miser j of the man 
whose heart is set on his gold. Poor, wretched man, hear 
what the word of God says : "Thy money perish with 
thee !" 

For all such men, " this world has many charms/'' 
But Moses can say, " Let me go ; this world has no attrac- 
tions for me." And this was not the language of Moses 
only ; but of David and Paul. Thousands there now 
are who breathe the same spirit with which these holy 
men were inspired, and who can sincerely say, "Let me 
go over, and see the good land : I am crucified to the 
world ; I have done with all its business ; let me go to 
Him whom my soul loveth V This is the language of 
all who love and fear God. 

It is not the feelings of the disappointed speculator, 
all whose Babel schemes have been frustrated, and who, 
because he has been thus defeated, cries out, " Let me 
go V Neither is it the excited feeling of the romantic 
lover, whose expectations have been derived from false 
notions ; whose hopes have been fed by airy dreams. 

Nor is the spirit and temper of the old churl ; of the 
man who looks with disgust on all that is passing around 
him ; who is out of temper with the young, with the 
world, with himself; and who, because he finds that 
other men have an opinion as well as himself, and that 
all are not inclined to submit to his dogmatic tyranny, 
often exclaims, "My soul is weary of life !" This was 
not the feeling that animated the breast of Moses. 

2. Religion assumes its personal importance — " Let 
me go/' The phraseology is personal. Not that there is 
anything selfish in religion : the everlasting happiness 
of others is never lost sight of by a heavenly-minded 



OLD AGE. 337 

saint. Yet he is not so intent on the salvation of others, 
as to forget the interests of his own soul. " Let me go I" 
It is like saying, " If there be a Saviour from sin, 0, my 
God, let him perform his work in my soul, and save me 
from all sin, in thought, in word, and in deed, as well in 
time as in eternity ! If there be a heaven, let me not 
seem to come short of it !" "I pray thee, let me go 
over, and see the good land I" 

3. There will be a restlessness of desire, an unsettled- 
ness of mind, while absent from the Lord. They feel 
that this is not their rest. There is nothing here suited 
to the desires and taste of a renewed soul. Paul was 
desirous to "depart and to be with Christ/" he was yet 
willing to abide in the flesh for the good of others. 
Thus while the aged Christian prays for heaven, he yet 
says, "The will of the Lord be done, as to time, and 
place and circumstance -" well knowing that his heavenly 
Father's time is the best. Still, they are not at home ; 
and knowing that "while they are present in the body 
they are absent from the Lord," they pray with Moses, 
" Let me go over, and see the good land !" — Then, where 
there is this meetness for heaven, 

4. Death ivill lose its terrors. — Religion does not al- 
together destroy our fears of death : it may be, and still 
is, a terrific enemy to many a Christian. But it is the 
high privilege of the believer, whose character I have 
been describing, to be exempted from "bondage through 
the fear of death." He knows how to distinguish be- 
tween the present circumstances of death and its eternal 
consequences. 

III. Urge you, by some appropriate motives, to aim at 
the attainment of this holy ardor after a heavenly state. 

1. Be convinced that it is attainable. How many 
Christians there are who stop short of this holy state of 
mind ! They seem to be quite satisfied if they can but 
15 



338 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

arrive at heaven, and never manifest any anxiety to at- 
tain that perfection which is the great preparation for 
its enjoyment. Not so the inspired apostle : he said, 
"Not as though I had already attained, or were already 
perfect ; but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that 
for which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus, I 
press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling 
of God in Christ Jesus." 

" He builds too low, who builds below the skies." 

Christians should aim at great things, and expect great 
things. 

2. Be assured, also that this state is desirable. It is 
desirable that you should be thus dead to this world, 
and alive to that which is to come, on several accounts. 

Consider the personal advantage to the individual. 
Of whom have we been speaking this evening ? Of "an 
old disciple ;" of an aged believer, who, by his profession, 
tells you that he is not of this world ; who lias for years 
set his face towards the heavenly Canaan ; and who now 
while standing on the brink of Jordan which "divides 
the heavenly land from ours," is saying, with Moses in the 
text, " I pray thee, let me go over, and see the good land!" 
This is as it ought to be ; his hold of earth weak ; his 
hold of heaven strong. 

But you should aim for this holy ardor, because of 
the benefit likely to result to others. Can such a city be 
set on a hill and not observed ! Can a light of such 
magnitude be placed on a table and not give light to all 
around ? Impossible. Such a city must be admired — 
such a candle must illuminate. 

And by this you will, also, be an honor to the religion 
you profess. 

" Great God! and shall we ever live 
At this poor dying rate?" 



OLD AGE. 339 

No ; your ardor for a heavenly state will ennoble your 
character, and you will become "epistles known and 
read of all men." 

Finally, Hereby God will he glorified. It is an awful 
fact, that there are, in this our world, many who are 
enimies to God, and wish to rob hirn of his glory. You 
are the friends, the servants, the sons ; and to you it 
belongs to vindicate his honor, to reflect his glory. But 
who can better do this than the aged ? While others 
doubt the salutary tendency of the doctrines of grace, 
you can prove its efficacy : it has made you to differ from 
others ; and it enables you, amidst surrounding temp- 
tations, to lead a holy life. You are an hourly witness 
of the doctrine of divine forgiveness ; a daily proof of 
the unchangeableness of redeeming love in the midst of 
a changing world. aged saint, 1 pray you aim con- 
tinually thus to rebuke gainsayers, and to glorify your 
heavenly Father. 

In looking round this vast assembly, I see many ivlio 
are well stricken in years. Well, what are you ? Old disci- 
ples, or old impenitent sinners — servants of God, or ser- 
vants of Satan ? " His servants you are whom you obey." 

Aged saints, ripe for eternal glory. We love to dwell 
upon your character, and to mark your attainments: 
we love to see you, to talk with you, and to pray 
with you now, and we hope hereafter to see you in 
heaven. It, rejoices us to behold you ascending the top 
of Pisgah's mount, and to hear you exclaiming, " I pray 
thee, let me go over and see the goodly land." We see 
in you a proof of the reality of religion, and the efficacy 
of divine grace in making and in keeping you thus a 
Christian. Young persons, you wish to know what the 
grace of God can do for a man in the present life; well 
we will not send you to the verge of the creation; we 
need not go beyond the present Christian society; we can 



340 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

here point you to instances of what the grace of God 
has done: — what would you have more than we can 
present to you ? 

Yes, aged saint, we love to see you. You have the 
infirmities common to human nature; the outward man 
is perishing, but the inward man is renewed day by day. 
You have one foot in the grave, and the other on earth; 
but your heart is in heaven where your best treasure is. 
Yes, we love to see you: you are ripe for glory. And 
what has made you thus? You are changed by the 
power of divine grace; you have found religion to be a 
source of true enjoyment, and now you find it support- 
ing and lifting you up. Young Christians, what would 
you have to encourage you which you do not find here? 
You have nothing to pass through which these have not 
passed through before you. Yes, aged saint, we love to 
visit you, and to contemplate your end. Yoar eyes grow 
dim, and the description given by Solomon of the decays 
of age are verified in you; but as your outward man 
decays, your inward man waxes stronger and stronger. 
Old man, rejoice in what is before you: you are taken up 
with the necessary affairs of life; your head and your 
hands are often diligently employed ; but you shall soon 
be gathered to your everlasting rest: as the late vener- 
able and pious John Newton in his last days, when asked 
how he felt his mind in the prospect of eternity, replied, 
"I am like a letter fully written, subscribed, and sealed; 
and only waiting for the postman to call and take it to 
its destination." 

Aged saint! you have often said, "I pray thee, let 
me go over and see the goodly land that is be} T ond Jor- 
dan, that goodly mountain, and Lebanon.''' Soon will 
the voice of your beloved Saviour address you, " Thy 
prayer is heard, thy request shall be granted — come up 
hither, and be forever with thy Lord." 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



A PHILANTHROPIST. 

A BURKING AND SHINING LIGHT. 
W. J. R. TAYLOR, D.D. 

COMMEMORATIVE OP THE HON. THEODORE FRELINGHUYSEN, LL.D., IN THIRD 
REFORMED CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 

"He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a 
season to rejoice in his light. — John v : 35. 

TTOW beautiful this designation of the Forerunner is, 
we may learn by a brief analysis. 
I. He was a <* light." But of what kind ? Literally 
the word in the original means a portable light, as a 
candle, lamp, or torch, which must be made, prepared, 
and kindled into a flame. He was not the uncreated 
Light, "the Sun of righteousness." " He was not that 
Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That 
was the true Light which lighteth every man that 

[3411 



342 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

cometh into this world." The greatest of all the 
prophets was but a lamp, a torch, compared with Christ, 
the full-orbed and Eternal Sun. 

II. But "he was a burning light." He was on fire, 
burning, blazing with self-consuming ardor in the ser- 
vice of God. He had " oil in his vessel with his lamp," 
and it never went out for lack of fuel. The Baptist, 
like our Saviour, was ever full of his work. His zeal 
consumed him. His devotion burned with the most in- 
tense fire of love. It glowed like a furnace at a white 
heat. It sent out its own radiating and reflecting fire, 
until the wilderness was kindled by its flames, and the 
nation was aglow with his awful power. But 

III. i ' He was a burning and a shining light." Some 
fires burn but do not blaze, nor is it every flame that 
gives true light. There must be something to burn, 
some solid chemical matter in every flame that makes an 
illumination. So there are souls which consume away 
but do not shine. But John the Baptist burned and 
shone, because his light was light from heaven. It was 
not stolen like the fabled Promethean fire, but it was 
kindled at the uncreated and eternal source ; and then 
it was set where all could see it and rejoice in it, while 
it flamed heavenward from earth. 

Yet "that burning and shining light" went out ; it 
burned fast ; it shone but a little while, and then he 
who was the lamp that lighted our Saviour's feet on 
earth, was made one of the brightest of the stars that 
burn and shine forever and ever before the throne of 
God. 

When God raises up eminent Christians, endows them 
with gifts and graces, and honors them and their work 
for Jesus' sake ; the Church is bound by her loyalty to 
her King, and by her debt to redeeming love, to "rejoice 
in that light and to walk in it" "for the season" dur- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 343 

ihg which it lasts. Every such believer in Christ is a 
miracle and monument of grace. The blood of Christ 
has been sprinkled on him, the love of Christ constrains 
him, the witness of the Holy Spirit is within him, and 
his seal upon him. His body is the temple of the Holy 
Ghost. He burns and shines with love divine. He 
does the work of Christ. He obeys the word and will 
of Christ. "Ye are the light of the world, &c." And 
when our Lord takes these " burning and shining 
lights " away from the Church on earth, they go not 
out in endless night, but he transfers them to the 
temple "that is not made with hands, eternal in the 
heavens." He takes them from a lower to a higher place 
where they burn and shine forever with brighter lustre 
and with purer flame. 

In this spirit let us now turn to see the illustration of 
these truths in the character and death and influences of 
that eminent servant of the Lord for whom we lament, 
and yet praise God to-day. 

The object of this discourse is not to present a 
biographical sketch nor to attempt a full-length portrait 
of our " American Wilberforce/' but simply to exhibit 
some of those characteristics which have made him for 
more than a generation "a burning and a shining 
light" in the Church and in the nation. Against the 
dark background of our unhappy times his character 
stands in bright and bold relief, admired by millions, 
and beloved by all who know the man and his native and 
gracious worth. 

A Christian is not the one to undervalue a descent 
from godly forefathers. The ancestors of Theodore 
Frelinghuysen, both in this country and in Holland, 
were eminent for their love of liberty, their independ- 
ence of spirit, and their intelligent attachment to the 
truth of God. In character, religion, and statesmanship, 



344 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

his lineage was equally honorable and blessed of God, 
who has made him the most illustrious of his name. 

Let me speak to you of his character. By the con- 
current testimony of the whole nation as expressed in 
private and public, in the pulpit and at the forum, and 
through the press, "he was a burning and a shining 
light," and " we rejoiced for a season in his light/'' 

It would be hard to say what particular gifts and 
traits made that light so bright. He was a man of emi- 
nent intellectual gifts, and of scholarly tastes ; an orator 
of no mean fame and of classic eloquence ; a lawyer who 
adorned the able bar of his native State ; a Senator who 
stood high in the front ranks when the Senate of the 
United States contained its greatest lights. But it was 
the final balance of his powers, the beautiful adjustment 
of intellectual and moral qualities with refinement of 
culture, admirable judgment, and unique individuality 
of character, speech and action, which constituted the 
general excellence of the man. In this happy combina- 
tion of characteristics without the striking preponder- 
ance of any one intellectual gift, he was not unlike our 
matchless Washington. 

Perhaps the best designation of his character would 
be its purity. JSTo miser's covetousness wrote its hateful 
legends on his calm brow. Nobody looked in his shadow 
for " treason, stratagems, and spoils ;' ? for lurking cun- 
ning, nor for that peculiar malice with which hardened 
age sometimes steels its withered nerves. He was like 
the crystal, solid but translucent. You could see through 
him, and love him, because he unconsciously sought and 
bore the test of sunlight. Like Nathaniel, when he 
came to Jesus, he was "an Israelite indeed in whom there 
was no guile." 

But it was the religion of Jesus Christ which gave to 
Mr. Frelinghuysen his chief distinction. He was the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 345 

Christian lawyer, the Christian senator, the Christian 
philanthropist, the Christian gentleman, the Christian 
always and everywhere. His honesty and integrity, his 
eloquence and his power were all, like himself, "bap- 
tized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost." "The blood of sprinkling" was on 
the posts of his doors, on his family, his calling, on every 
service that he rendered to the country or to the cause of 
Christ. 

I know no finer instance of the vast increase of 
power which religion gives to a man of intellect and 
education. 

When his name was proposed in the caucus of the 
National Convention, for Vice-President, on the same 
ticket with Henry Clay, a distinguished Southern lawyer 
opposed it in these words : " I know him well ; I admire 
and love him : if I were searching the world over for a 
man to be my pastor, my s]p»iritual guide, I would seek 
Theodore Frelinghuysen of all men living ; but to drag 
him through the mire of party politics at the tail of a 
presidential ticket, I will never consent to it — never, 
never !" Still he was nominated, and failed of an elec- 
tion, that would have placed in the second office of the 
nation one of the purest of statesmen. 

But God had better things in store for his honored 
servant. Both before and after his retiracy from politi- 
cal life, he was the most eminent living American repre- 
sentative of the great moral, philanthropic and religious 
institutions of the age. Nothing that concerned the 
welfare of humanity and the kingdom of Christ, was 
foreign to him. Philanthropy has had no more noble ad- 
vocate, Christianity no more devout pattern of its broad, 
graces and of its deep, genuine catholicity. The whole 
Church of Christ in these United States claims him as the 
type, embodiment and representative of Christian Union 
15* 



346 MEMORIAL TU1BUTES. 

and of that " unity of the spirit" which is " the bond 
of peace," and " of perfectness." No better proof of this 
can be named than the singular fact that at one time he 
held the office of President in those three great national 
and catholic institutions, the American Bible Society, 
the American Tract Society, and the American Board of 
Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He was a theolo- 
gian of ample acquirements, of rigid evangelical views, 
and of thorough orthodoxy according to the Calvinistic 
standard of Dordrecht and Westminister. All his 
ancestral, traditional, and local associations, his consti- 
tutional tendencies, his education, and his conscientious 
convictions, united to make him a living type of " the 
good old ways of the Keformation." He was neither a 
bigot nor a latitudinarian. He stood upon the highest 
ground of unsectarian Christianity, and yet like a good 
soldier of Jesus Christ he obeyed that apostolic injunc- 
tion : "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like 
men, be strong. Let all your things be done with 
charity." (1 Cor. 16: 13, 14.) 

His faith, and his love for Christ and his cause, were 
measured by the world, the Bible, and the Cross. With 
him " there was neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, 
male nor female : for all are one in Christ Jesus." (Gal. 
3:28.) 

He was a regular attendant of the union daily prayer- 
meetings which were held in New Brunswick during and 
since the late revival, and took a leading part in the exer- 
cises, and an humble seat among the lowly. For many 
years during his legal practice while a Senator in Con- 
gress, when Chancellor of the University, and afterward, 
when President of Eutgers College, he was a Sabbath- 
school teacher, who loved his work, deemed it one of his 
highest honors, and found in it a comfort and reward of 
which he now enjoys the full fruition. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 347 

Another pre-eminent trait of his Christian character 
was his faithfulness. He could "reprove, rebuke, ex- 
hort, with all long-suffering and gentleness." He did 
this with an authority which only goodness can com- 
mand. The righteous indignation which the sacred 
writers show against sin, and their fidelity to truth, and 
to the transgressor, were richly displayed in the habitual 
conduct of Mr. Frelinghuysen. This was the outwork- 
ing of a principle within him, which grew stronger and 
brighter with his experience. Every body felt it. From 
the Senate Chamber to the farthest bounds of the Union, 
the wise and good of the whole land rejoiced in his light. 
It burned and it shone for all the people. 

There is one other characteristic of this venerated 
man, which cannot be omitted in even the most super- 
ficial view of his traits. He was the beau ideal of a 
Christian patriot. The motto of his life was : "For 
Christ and my country." I need not stop to tell this 
audience how he exemplified his love of country. It 
was a part of the man and of his life. 

During his last illness, and up to the day of his 
death, his country was upon his heart, and upon his 
tongue, and in his prayers. And when from almost 
every public building and private house in the city, the 
good old flag floated at half-mast over his unburied 
corpse, the people felt that America and the Union had 
lost the very Daniel of the time. 

His death was preceded by an illness of a few weeks 
duration, attended by severe suffering. But grace was 
triumphant there. The faith which be had humbly 
adorned so long was his victory. The Saviour whom he 
loved so well, was "Christ in him the hope of glory." 
Notwithstanding he had been prone to constitutional 
religious depression, and had during long years felt those 
fears of death which trouble many of God's dear child- 



348 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

ren, they were all dispelled by the grace which was 
given him. The valley of the shadow of death was 
made light about him. His end was peace — perfect 
peace — which was the effect of the assurance of hope 
unto the end. His was not the death of one "who 
wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down 
to pleasant dreams." But he died in the faith which he 
had loved, 

' ' His eye bright with hope, 
Flashing its birthright radiance unto heaven, 
Drinking revealments of God's paradise." 

Amid the prayers and the praises of a great multitude 
of the best citizens of the land, with tears and with love, 
his body was laid in the grave of the righteous, among 
the sepulchers of many honored and sainted dead, to 
await "the resurrection of the just." 

Yes ! yes ! He was a burning and a shining light, 
and we rejoiced in his light for a season ! " Oh ! give 
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good — to him that made 
great lights — for his mercy endure th forever." 

The beneficent grandeur of such a character deserves 
peculiar attention in this troublous time. Nature had 
done much for him ; but grace did more. It gave this 
"salt its savor." His world-wide chanty, his deep piety, 
his representative character, his high example, are before 
the nations of the earth. Wherever the American tract, 
the American missionary, and the American Bible, "go 
into all the world preaching the gospel to every 
creature," they carry with them the influence and the 
prayers of this prince of God. To our American youth 
he is the pattern of patriotism, professional purity, and 
success, and of sanctified ambition, with modesty, 
humility, and faithful piety. To the legal profession he 
is " the burning and shining light " of its learning, its 



MISCELLANEOUS. 349 

integrity, its eloquence, and its legitimate power in the 
state. To our country, and its rulers, he is the model 
of its wisest counselors, its best citizens, and its most 
Christian loyalty. To the Church he is the type of her 
most eminent servants in her Sabbath-school, her elder- 
ship, her ecclesiastical courts, and her benevolent opera- 
tions. To every one of us he is the pattern of the 
decided believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, "walking 
softly before God, and occupying his talents until his 
Lord came."" 



A THEOLOGICAL PROFESSOR. 

REV. GEORGE P. FISHER, 
LIVINGSTON- PROFESSOR OE DIVINITY IN YALE COLLEGE. 

, A DISCOURSE ON THE DEATH OF DR. N. W. TAYLOR. 

"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
ment ; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars 
for ever and ever." — Daniel xii: 3. 

TT^HAT glorious promises are held out, in the Bible, 
'* to those who spend their lives in bringing sin- 
ners to God ! They are pronounced blessed even in 
their persecutions. Having a part in the sufferings of 
Christ, they go to reign with ..im on high. They are 
forever lifted above the troubles of this dying existence, 
as the firmament is exalted above the earth. In the 
sphere to which they are removed they are like the stars 
set in the tranquil sky. ISTo man can pluck them down 
out of the hand of the Father. They are together there 
in heaven, shining on one another with a mingled radi- 
ance, reflected from " the Lamb who is the light there- 
of." They do not die and pass away like the inhabitants 
of the earth, but thev resemble the stars which have held 



350 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

their course undimmed from the morning of creation un- 
til now. Their life is everlasting — an everlasting prog- 
ress in knowledge, and purity, and blessedness. Yea, 
when the stars shall fall, and the heaven depart as a 
scroll, the Apostles of God will continue near their Re- 
deemer forever and ever ! 

We cherish the hope that the venerated father whose 
body we have lately committed to the grave, was a true 
minister of Christ, and that Christ was with him, ac- 
cording to the promise, unto the end, and that now he 
is with Christ in the mansions prepared for His follow- 
ers. We honor the Creator when we recognize any real 
excellence to be found in his creature. We honor the 
Saviour when we admire the fruit of his grace, and con- 
template the work of those whom he has led by the 
hand. Only let us keep in mind the words of John the 
Baptist — himself " a burning and shining light " — "A 
man can receive nothing except it be given him from 
heaven." 

Dr. Taylor combined two powers seldom found to- 
gether — the powers of a metaphysician and of an orator. 
His faculty of long-continued abstraction was wonderful, 
and the subtlety of his analysis strained the attention of 
the most acute of his pupils. His powerful mind found 
recreation in those forms of activity which, to common 
men, are a most irksome task. In the department of in- 
tellectual science, he stands, by general consent, in the 
first rank. Yet, mixed with the accurate, reflective, 
kecnty discriminating habit of his mind, and glowing 
beneath it was the fire of an orator. He loved to con- 
vince others, and to carry them with him. In the pres- 
ence of an assembly, even in the presence of a few 
congenial listeners, his mind would kindle and his man- 
ner become eloquent. Among his most stirring, as well 
as instructive efforts, were the extemporaneous decisions 



MISCELLANEOUS. 351 

which he was formerly accustomed to pronounce in the 
students' debating society, over which he presided. In- 
deed, his mind seemed always to be in lively motion ; 
and it was his complaint through his whole life that he 
could get but little sleep. When the night came, his 
brain refused to cease from its work. 

If you look for the secret of the uncommon influence 
which he exerted over his students, you may find it in, 
part, in the personal traits which have been already 
named. They were struck, on their first acquaintance 
with him, with the superiority of his intellect. There 
was a fascination in the manifest independence of his 
character. It was evident that he called no man master. 
He taught them to throw away the authority of names, 
and to think for themselves. He stimulated them by 
putting his propositions in paradoxical and startling 
forms. He gave them to understand that he was not 
satisfied with the expositions of theology in the current 
treatises ; and that he lectured, because he had things to 
say which had not been said before. He challenged them 
to examine all his teachings in the light of their own in- 
telligence, to bring forward all the objections which the}? - 
could think of, urging them to propose questions, and 
ending every lecture with the words : "Now I will hear 
you." He made it clear that he was not discharging a 
mechanical function, that he was not fettered with false 
notions of professional dignity, but that he was intent on 
his great object, and was ready to trample on any mere 
forms that might stand in his way. The courage of Dr. 
Taylor fascinated young men. For he was eminently 
courageous. He had never learned the trick of conceal- 
ing his opinions. In controversy, he would know noth- 
ing of stratagem, but marched boldly up in the face of 
his antagonist. 

He has been properly styled the last of our New Eng- 



852 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

land Schoolmen, in the special themes which absorbed his 
attention, in his method of handling them, and in the 
extent of his influence over the clergy, the compeer of 
Emmons and Hopkins, of Smalley and the Edwardses. 
The animosities of theological strife die away. One 
generation stones the prophet and the next builds his 
sepulchre. The memory of Dr. Taylor will be generally 
honored. His name will soon be historic ; and the col- 
lege where he was educated, and where, for thirty-five 
years, he has taught, will be proud to place it high on 
the list of illustrious divines who have adorned its annals. 

They who knew Dr. Taylor best, do not need to be 
further reminded of the depth of his affections and the 
religious earnestness that appeared in his daily life. He 
held a stem mastery over his feelings, but now and then 
they broke through the barrier, and the floods of emotion 
that poured forth betrayed the depth of the fountain. 
How he loved his family, those long nights spent in 
prayer, when temptation or distress was impending, are 
a touching witness. How his sympathies flowed out to 
his parishioners, their lasting gratitude, and the tears of 
gray-haired men who followed him to the grave, are a 
significant proof. The cordiality of his attachment to 
friends and pupils is seen in the sorrow of so many scat- 
tered over different States of the Union, and in distant 
lands, who will mourn as personally bereaved. 

In character, as in name, he was the Israelite in whom 
was no guile. Some time since, when compelled by his 
infirmities to lay down his pen for the larger part of every 
day, he casually remarked to me that he occupied him- 
self with religious meditation ; to that kind of medita- 
tion, he said, his strength was adequate. More recently, 
when fully aware of the near approach of death, he ex- 
pressed his calm trust in God, and his desire to depart as 
Stephen did, uttering the petition: "Lord Jesus, re- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 353 

ceive my spirit." To his best earthly friend, he said: 
" When the time comes for me to die, I want you to be 
perfectly calm, and when I am called to go, I want 
you to let me go ; and the widow's G-od will be your 
God." * * 

It is hard for me to realize the fact that Dr. Taylor 
is dead. I expect to hear his familiar step at my door. 
I expect him to come forward and greet me as I enter 
his house. I think of him as an aspiring boy, journey- 
ing to college from his father's house, his future career 
all unseen before him. I think of him as a vigorous 
youth, grappling with the hard problem of Foreknowl- 
edge and Will, with the determination to solve it or die 
in the endeavor. I think of the beauty of his person 
and the majesty of his eloquence, when, in the center of 
his manhood, great congregations hung on his lips in 
rapt attention. I behold him as I first saw him, an old 
man, but with spirits still buoyant, and all the energies 
of his mind in full exercise, discoursing, in his lecture- 
room, on the grounds of guilt and responsibility to God. 
I see him as he was but lately, when, weary under the 
weight of his years and his trials, he walked through the 
streets with slow and painful steps, pausing here and 
there to talk with some old parishioner on the tilings 
that pertain to the kingdom of God ; and again, as he 
lay in weakness on the bed from which he never arose ; 
and at last I think of his noble features on which death 
had set his seal. Yet his life seems unfinished. It is 
unfinished. He has not died, but gone to another life, 
leaving the worn garment of mortality which he needs 
no more. Dark clouds may settle on the face of the 
evening sky, and seem to blot out the sun, while that 
luminary is rising on other regions, and rejoicing as a 
strong man to run a race. 

Yet his earthly life is ended forever. Never again 



354 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

will he enter this sanctuary where he has so long bowed 
in worship. In these places where he has been seen for 
half a century, he will never more appear. That deep- 
toned voice is hushed in death. That tongue is silent 
forever. Soon all that was mortal in him whom we hon- 
ored, will be mingled with the dust. To see so much 
manhood fade away — shall it not impress on us the vanity 
of the earth ? Shall it not rebuke the pride of the 
young who feel strong and safe in their strength ? " For 
what is your life ? It is even a vapor, that appeareth 
for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Let this 
solemn event turn our minds to the true purpose of life, 
and teach us how worthless, by themselves, are all earthly 
things. Of what importance, now, to our deceased 
friend are the admiration and reproach which he re- 
ceived, both in so large a measure, from his fellow- 
mortals ? In itself considered, of how little moment 
that he rose to an intellectual pre-eminence among them? 
Or even that he has built up with so much toil, a theo- 
logical system that is called by his name! That system, 
whatever value it may have at present, will be supplanted, 
and in time will pass away. For the truth does not 
abide in one form of expression ; and it is ever showing 
new phases, and casting off the alloy of error. 

11 Our little systems have their day, 

They have their day, and cease to be ; 
They are but broken lights of Thee, 

And thou, O Lord! art more than they." 

"Whether there be knowledge it shall vanish away; 
for we know in part." " For now we see through a glass 
darkly." In the light of eternity, our departed teacher 
may have learned more, in these last few days, than in 
his life-time before. He has left behind an influence; 
he has borne away a character. Our joy is not in his 



MISCELLANEOUS. 353 

talents ; in the productions of his intellect, or in his 
earthly fame > bivt our joy is in the belief that he lived to 
glorify God, and that his controlling purpose was to do 
good. We rejoice in the confidence that, in the great 
ends which he set before him, he was an obedient follower 
of the Saviour, patiently endeavoring to do His will and 
humbly trusting in His mercy for salvation. And the 
source of the satisfaction with which we review his life, 
is the fact that he was employed, by the Redeemer, as 
an instrument of turning a multitude to righteousness. 
To the Redeemer be all the glory ! 

In concluding this imperfect tribute to my venerated 
and beloved teacher, let me urge the young men of this 
assembly, in whose welfare my heart is deeply interested, 
to follow him as he followed Christ. Not to disparage 
other occupations to which you may be incliued, what 
can you do more worthy, than to devote yourself, as he 
did, to the work of a Gospel minister ? What object 
can you figure to yourself so high as the turning of im- 
mortal men from sin unto righteousness ? Whatever 
self-sacrifice may belong to it, what work will, on the 
whole, yield you so much peace while you live ? Con- 
trast the life of a faithful preacher, in its lofty studies, 
its inspiring and delightful duties, with the thorny 
path of political ambition ! 

But aside from the consideration of temporal happi- 
ness, when the hour of death shall come — and it will 
come much sooner than you can now realize — what life 
will you wished to have lived ? At the portal of the 
eternal world, as you look back on the past, what work 
will you desire to have done ? Oh ! how unspeakable is 
the privilege of him who, in that parting hour, can take 
to himself the promise of the text ! Blessed are they to 
whom it is given to turn many to righteousness, and to 
shine as the stars forever and ever ! 



356 MEMORIAL T1UBUTES. 



A LAWYER, EDITOR AND COLLEGE PRO- 
FESSOR. 

MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON WILLIAM Q. GODDARD, LL. D. 

DELIVERED AT THE REQUEST OP THE FACULTY OP BROWN UNIVERSITY. 

FRANCIS WAYLAID, D. D. 

PRESIDENT OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 

T RISE to perform one of the saddest duties to which I 
have been appointed. My colleagues have requested 
me to deliver a discourse, in commemoration of the life 
and services of one very dear to us all, but, if I may be 
allowed to say it, specially dear to me. He was the 
first officer of this institution with whom I had the honor 
to become intimately acquainted. Our friendship has 
continued, without interruption until the day of his 
death. During the whole period, within which we were 
associated as officers of instruction, we were in the habit 
of meeting daily, and many times in the day. The va- 
rious plans, which, since my knowledge of this institu- 
tion, have been laid, for the improvement either of its 
course of education or manner of discipline, have all re- 
ceived the benefit of his wise and thoughtful consider- 
ation. The principles on which they depended were 
developed by mature reflection, and the measures which 
resulted from them were carried into effect by our mu- 
tual labor. And when, in consequence of ill health he 
retired from the duties of that chair which he had filled 
with equal honor to himself and advantage to the Uni- 
versity, we all considered his separation from us to be 
rather in form than in fact. We unanimously invited 
him to be present at all the meetings of the faculty, as- 
sured that his interest remained unabated in the pros- 
perity of the institution, on whose reputation his labors 



MISCELLANEOUS. 357 

had conferred so much additional lustre. We felt that 
his talents, and labor and fame, were as much as ever 
the property of the university. For myself I may truly 
say, that, for nearly twenty years, I have taken but few 
important steps the reasons for which I have not dis- 
cussed in the freest manner with him, and in which, 
also, I have not been in a great degree either guided by 
his counsel or encouraged by his approbation. There is 
scarcely a topic in religion or morals, in literature or 
social law, on which either of us has reflected, that we 
have not discussed together. ' Neither of us was fond of 
disputation, but both of us loved exceedingly the honest 
and unstudied interchange of opinions. It so happened, 
that our views upon the most of the subjects were, in an 
unusual degree, identical. The very last conversation 
in which we were engaged related to those great truths, 
revealed to us by Jesus Christ, in the belief and love of 
which, all his spiritual disciples are one. 

In a moment, and all this interchange of thought, 
and all this concert of action, have ceased, and, so far 
as this world is concerned, have ceased for ever ; and 
while the living image of our associate and friend seems 
yet to walk among us, in all its freshness, I am requested 
to commemorate the services of the dead. You will all, I 
I very well know, sympathize in the emotions with 
which I undertake this solemn service. It is almost as 
if he of whom I speak were in the midst of us, to be the 
hearer of his own eulogy. We have been so long ac- 
customed to his presence on every collegiate occasion ; 
so few days have elapsed since he occupied his wonted 
seat in this sanctuary; that we are unable to realize the 
melancholy truth, that we shall see his face no more. 
And besides this, the deep feeling, which pervades every 
bosom, leads us instinctively to distrust our own judg- 
ments. On the one hand, we fear lest the full utterance 



858 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

of our sentiments should seem like panegyric ; and on 
the other j we are troubled lest eulogy, too much chas- 
tened, should do injustice to the memory of the dead. 
Aud yet more is this embarrassment increased by the re- 
collection, that the occasion necessarily awakens, of 
those inimitable delineations of character, which so often 
flowed from the pen of him whose sudden departure we 
are now assembled to deplore. 

Under such circumstances, I know full well that I 
must fail to present the portraiture of the late Professor 
Goddard, as he now reveals himself to your memory, and 
stands embodied before you in your conceptions. I know, 
however, that I am surrounded by his friends, who will 
readily complete the sketch, no matter how imperfectly 
executed, which I may offer for their contemplation. I 
know, moreover, that you will all appreciate the diffi- 
culty of my task, and pardon the indistinctness with 
which my thoughts reflect the beauty and the symmetry 
which you have so frequently admired in the honored 
and beloyed original. 

"While the principles of social and constitutional law 
were always among the most interesting subjects of 
study to Mr. Goddard, the practice of the legal profes- 
sion could never have been congenial to his tastes. Per- 
manently enfeebled by sickness, he was unfitted for the 
labors of the forum : while his soul was too sensibly alive 
to the beautiful, to become wedded to an intellectual 
pursuit of which the pervading element is logic. He, 
therefore, relinquished the practice of the law, and 
chose the profession of an editor, . . . and, at the 
time of his death, was Professor of Pulpit Eloquence in 
the Theological Seminary at Xewton, Mass. 

He had formed very just conceptions of the moral 
and social obligations devolving upon the conductor of a 
public press. He believed it to be the duty of an editor 



MISCELLANEOUS. 359 

not merely to abstain from outraging the moral senti- 
ment of a community ; but still more, by holding forth 
examples of pre-eminent virtue, and inculcating the prin- 
ciples of everlasting truth, to elevate che standard of pub- 
lic manners, and teach the wayward passions of men 
obedience to conscience and reverence for law. He be- 
lieved, that by constantly presenting, to the eye of the 
public, images of beauty, the press might exert a pow- 
erful influence in forming and purifying the national 
taste. He thought it incumbent upon him, on all suita- 
ble occasions to rouse the spirit of the state, to combine 
together good men of every name, in the promotion of 
every enterprise by which the ignorant might be enlight- 
ened, or the vicious reclaimed ; by which vice might be 
deprived of its means of fascination, or virtue endowed 
with new elements of attractiveness ; by which the intel- 
ligent and the wealthy might be excited to beneficence, 
and the poor and uncultivated be encouraged to self-de- 
pendence. 

His editorial writings were remarkable for the high, 
spirit of individual and social morality, which breathed in 
every line, no less than for the pure, yet sparkling and epi- 
grammatic English, in which every sentence was clothed. 
Though he espoused with youthful ardor the political opin- 
ions he ever afterwards professed, yet, as I have been in- 
formed, he never in a single instance forfeited the per- 
sonal respect of his warmest opponents. To every judi- 
cious effort to promote the welfare of his fellow citizens, 
he gave his willing and earnest support; and some of 
our most valuable public charities owe their origin to 
the editorial labors of this portion of his life. 

His success as an instructor excelled in unfolding such 
general views as illustrate the principles of a science, by 
tracing their effects upon the condition and changes of 
society, and by exhibiting their influence in the forma- 



300 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

tion of individual character. He labored to enkindle in 
the bosoms of his pupils a love of truth, of virtue, and 
of goodness. 

He was a diligent and profound thinker upon all 
subjects of religion, morals, general politics, and human 
civilization. But even here, he appeared to arrive at the 
result in which he rested, rather by a moral intuition 
than by any process of reasoning. His spiritual discern- 
ment seemed to indicate to him what the law should be, 
and, upon investigation, he found his opinions confirmed 
by the highest authorities. Hence, in his reading, he 
rather sought for the truths which our great teachers 
have discovered, than for the processes by which their 
discoveries have been effected. To theological contro- 
versy he paid but little attention ; but of sermons, or 
other religious writings, which lay bare the human heart, 
or reveal to us the precepts of duty, or present the scrip- 
tural motives for well doing, he was a diligent and ear- 
nest student. Of the various theories of social order, 
he knew but little, and he cared even less. Let a case, 
however, be presented, which involved the essential 
principles either of individual or social right, and lie 
would seize upon it in an instant : and it would not be 
long before he had formed a definite and earnest opinion 
in respect to it. He might not be able to give a logical 
reason for his opinion; but the opinion would be, with 
singular certainty, correct, and he would so present it to 
the public as to leave an impression which no argument 
could readily efface. 

During the political agitations a few years since, he 
stood forth the unwavering advocate of justice aud truth, 
of liberty and law. His essays for the daily press, during 
this period alone, would fill a moderately sized volume. 
Day after day, he explained to his fellow citizens the 
principles of rational liberty ; he laid bare, with a mas- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 361 

terly hand, the distinction between liberty and licen- 
tiousness ; and when at last the crisis arrived — with an 
eloquence that fired the soul of every true hearted man, 
he urged us all to unite in defense of that heritage of 
civil and religious liberty which God had bestowed upon 
our fathers. In this cause he labored on, amid sickness 
and infirmity, through good report and through evil 
report, until the efforts of patriotism were crowned with 
triumphant success. All the ends he aimed at were his 
country's, his God's, and truth's. He desired nothing, 
either for himself or his friends, which he did not equally 
desire for the humblest citizen amongst us. He labored 
to sustain a government which should secure to every 
citizen the rights conferred upon him by his Creator, 
and which should guard those rights with equal vigi- 
lance, both against the oppressions of the many, and 
the tyranny of the few. 

The manners of Professor Goddard were courteous 
and refined. His personal habits, without being pain- 
fully exact, were scrupulously neat, and in perfect 
harmony with the character of a literary citizen. His 
conversation, sometimes playful, never frivolous, was al- 
ways instructive, and at times singularly forcible, 
captivating and eloquent. His tastes were simple and 
easily gratified ; and I think that he preferred a book in 
his study, or a conversation at the fireside with a friend, 
to any form of more exciting and outdoor enjoyment. 
He was, both from nature and principle, eminently, but 
with discrimination, charitable. To the judiciously 
benevolent institutions of our city he was a liberal and 
frequently an unsolicited contributor. Nor did his 
charity exhaust itself in making others the almoners of 
his bounty. He sought out the poor and infirm, the 
disconsolate and the forgotten, and specially those who 
in age were suffering from the mutability of fortune ; and 
16 



362 MEMO HI AL TRIBUTES. 

while he relieved their wants by pecuniary aid, soothed 
their sorrows by his sympathy, and animated their hopes 
by his cheerful encouragement. One of his last visits, 
only a few days before his death, was made to an aged 
widow, who has since followed him into eternity, to 
whom he communicated alms ; while, as she herself told 
me, he consoled her sinking spirit by the humble piety 
of his conversation. 

The religious opinions of Professor Goddard were 
those of the divines of the English reformation. He 
believed most fully in those doctrines which teach the 
moral corruption of the human heart, the necessity of 
the influences of the Spirit to our moral transformation, 
and that our only hope of salvation rests upon the atone- 
ment by Jesus Christ. He was conscientiously attached 
to the Episcopal Church ; but, making a wise distinction 
between spiritual religion and the various modes 
in which it may be manifested, he loved true piety, 
wherever he discovered it, "with a pure heart fervently." 
He carried into daily practice the sentiment which he 
uttered only a few days before his death. " The longer 
I live," said he, " the more dearly do I prize being a 
Christian ; and the more signally unimportant seem to 
me the differences by which true Christians are separated 
from each other." 

The death of such a man, at any time, is always felt 
to be an irreparable loss. I, however, remember no in- 
stance, since my residence in this city, in which this 
sentiment has been so deep and universal. The sphere 
of eminent usefulness, which Mr. Goddard filled, was 
peculiar and uncommon. It rarely happens that af- 
fluence is granted to men of so varied learning, so culti- 
vated taste, and so elevated moral principle. Still more 
rarely are these advantages combined with the leisure and 
the will to use them with disinterested zeal for the 



MISCELLANEOUS 363 

benefit of the community. But it was while thus em- 
ploying his varied talents, that Mr. G-oddard was so sud- 
denly removed from the midst of us. At no time of his 
life had his influence been so widely acknowledged and 
so beneficially felt, as at the very moment when it all 
ceased forever. When we think of the intellectual and 
moral light which he diffused, of the trusts which he 
held, of the courses of thought and action which he 
directed, we seem to look in vain, I do not say for the 
man, but for the men, by whom his place is to be sup- 
plied. Our only hope is in God. "Help, Lord, for the 
godly man ceaseth ; for the faithful fail from among the 
children of men." 

But what, let us inquire, are the sentiments which it 
is becoming in us to cherish on the occasion of so mourn- 
ful a bereavement ? In the first place, let us bow in 
submission before the face of our Father in heaven, who, 
in inscrutable wisdom, and yet parental goodness, has 
inflicted upon us this sore calamity. He endowed our 
departed associate and friend with the intellectual 
powers and the spiritual graces which made him, for 
many years, a burning and a shining light. At the time 
which He had chosen, and in the manner that He him- 
self had selected, He has removed him from this world 
of trial, and raised him to his sanctuary of rest. "The 
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be 
the name of the Lord." 

A high-minded and public spirited citizen, who has, 
for many years, devoted a large portion of his eminent 
ability to the promotion of every design by which we and 
our children could be rendered wiser and better, has 
ceased from his labors. A more solemn and urgent re- 
sponsibility is devolved upon every one of us who remains. 
Let us cheerfully assume those public burdens which 
our associate and friend laid down only with his life. 



364 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Let his example teach us that the cause of truth and 
justice, the cause of liberty and law, of charity and piety, 
are well worth living for. Highly as we esteem the vari- 
ous gifts of our lamented friend, it is for the use of 
which he made of them, that now we chiefly venerate 
him. Though we may not be able to supply the loss 
which the community has sustained in this calamity, yet 
if each one of us labors with an honest and earnest 
spirit, our humble offering will be acceptable to the 
Master. 

And lastly, how solemn an admonition does this 
event bring home to the bosom of each one of us. We 
are most impressively reminded, that no pre-eminence of 
usefulness, no ties of affection, no gifts of nature or ad- 
vantages of fortune, can offer to us the least assurance of 
length of days. The sun of Mr. Goddard went down 
while it was yet high moon. Nay more : how solemnly 
are we taught, that every one of us is walking upon the 
borders of eternity, and that the very next footstep may 
be planted within the limits of the world unseen. We 
commence a week in health, but where shall we be at the 
end of it ? We rise in the morning, buoyant with hope, 
but God only knows who of us shall look upon the shad- 
ows of the evening. We arrange our plans for the hour, 
but ere they are half completed, we are numbered with 
the dead. We commence a conversation, but while the 
words yet linger on our lips, we are in eternity. Can 
there be one among us who mistakes the lesson which 
these conditions of our being are intended to inculcate ? 
They surely teach us that we can only live wisely as we live 
in habitual preparation for death. Let us then give all 
diligence to make our calling and election sure, for so an 
entrance shall be abundantly ministered to us, into the 
everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
Christ. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 365 



A PHYSICIAN. « 

MEMORIAL SERMON OF H. H. GREGORY, M. D. 
REV. WESLEY R. DAVIS, 

PASTOR OF ST JAMES' M. E. CHURCH, NEW YORK. 

Upon tlie top of the pillars was lily work. — 1 KrsfGS vii : 22. 
Him that overcometh tvill I make a pillar in the temple of my God. — Rev. 
iii : 12. 

r pHEEE is a manifest connection between these pas- 
sages. The first reveals to us the polished columns 
of Jerusalem's temple ; the last is significant of another 
temple in a New Jerusalem of which the old was the 
magnificent type. 

In this divinely planned structure I know of nothing, 
outside the Holy of Holies, more impressive than the 
pillars built by Hiram. These were of the finest brass, 
of great height, splendid in symmetry and crowned with 
lilies. 

It is a law of art that the most perfect and enduring 
effects are produced by a combination of things unlike each 
other. A painter throws into his picture the darkest 
shadows that he may intensify his clearest lights. A 
sculptor carves for the top of his columns, capitals of 
delicate design. An architect relieves the heavy masonry 
of his walls with items of exquisite device and forms of 
sculptured beauty. God himself is our original teacher ; 
for whilst he "setteth fast the mountains, being girded 
with power," he hath woven around their summits ten- 
der vines, and rooted in their crevices sweet-scented 
flowers, that warmly clasp and color the cold grey cliffs. 

Observe that the strength was first and the beauty of 
lilies afterward. TVe have here the uplifting of those 
two qualities which are worshipped by the soul of man 



366 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

the world over. Power and beauty alike win his homage, 
but not unfrequently he yields himself to that which is 
but the sham of strength and renders service to that 
which has but the semblance of beauty ; to power un- 
gifted with love and to beauty unadorned by holiness. 
It is the lie of the world often uttered and often believed, 
that the righteous must needs be the weak, and the pure 
the uncomely. God declares the right to be the only 
strong, and the good the only beautiful. The power 
that enters human life to rule it within and without, 
must be a power of conquest, having the inherent quali- 
ties, of stability. Man is born in battle. His cradle is 
rocked by his own stragglings. His history is that of a 
shifting factor in a shifting world. He can neither com- 
mand himself nor control his surroundings. Antagon- 
isms swarm on his path. Straggling alone he can have 
but one experience : the shame that comes of perpetual 
impotency and the confusion that arises from continued 
defeat. Sooner or later he learns this truth, that "all 
power is of God," and that the strength that conquers 
for the spiritual, that takes hold of eternal things and 
abides, that elevates life into firmness of character and 
adorns it w T ith real beauty, is possible only through the 
patient, helpful, regenerative ministry of Jesus Christ. 

A man having this Christ for his Saviour and friend, 
and developing thereby a character that was like a 
column, has just been called out of the stir and bustle 
of our midst. The beginnings of such a life are of spe- 
cial interest. 

I cannot speak of the sudden darkness and inner pain 
that smote my heart on the morning when a messenger 
entered my room with the tidings, briefly told " Dr. 
Gregory is dead." I felt as though one of the central 
foundations of the earth had been removed. I knew 
that a pillar in our temple had fallen ; that a life on 



MISCELLANEOUS. 367 

which hundreds of lives leaned was shattered. Looking 
beyond the shadows of the finite I behold a shining, 
stately shaft set up on high, and read the destiny he has 
gone forward to realize; — " Him that overcometh will I 
make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go 
no more out." 

What was the ground-work of this life ? At such a 
time as this, these questions naturally determine the 
drift of our thoughts. 

The classification of men is a very difficult task, and 
yet it is one we almost unconsciously perform. It is not 
simply the result of our judgment after a careful analysis 
of character. It largely belongs to our intuitions. 
What a man is, is the final impression he makes on the 
world rather than what he seems to be. His seeming 
may be adroitly managed, but the instinctive and neces- 
sary influences of his real self, will sooner or later tear 
off the mask. Genuine manhood is as certain of recog- 
nition as hypocrisy is of detection and scorn. . . . 

Making search for the foundations of this character, 
I ask you to mark the Faith which shaped and sustained 
his history. 

He was a man of convictions, a man compacted of 
positives ; invariably clear in opinion and firm in atti- 
tude. When he came to apprehend the realities of life, 
illuminated by the realities of divine truth, it was in no 
negative mood, but with a vivid experience and seizure 
of soul that made them his own. . . . 

I ask you to consider also his Fidelity. He was open 
to conviction, if wrong could be convinced and swayed 
to the right path, for the right with him was ever the 
supreme ; but once settled in purpose he could not be 
moved. He was not a rover or a shifter, playing fast 
and loose with duty, but an earnest man who having 
found truth planted himself on it with a firmness invin- 



368 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE8. 

cible. Faithful to his professions, he was a column mor- 
ticed in rock, find him where you might. 

Because he thus stood immovable on things accepted, 
we have the rounded effect of his entire life ; which was 
that of strength. 

He was strong because sincere. He had all the ten- 
derness of real strength and all the strength of real 
tenderness. Nevertheless he was poorly endowed with 
patience for many things. He would burn and flare 
against pretence and hypocrisy with an energy that was 
startling. He could no more bear a sham than be a sham 
himself. The meannesses that eat integrity out of char- 
acter were specially smitten by his sarcasm or shriveled 
in his scorn. 

He could not dissemble. He had no hiding place 
even for his faults. These were reported on the very 
surface of his action, and were the excesses of virtues 
rather than their perversion. 

An experience of safety belonged to every one that 
knew him, for he was without guile. To the worth of 
sincerity he added the Christ-like sjurit of self sacrifice. 
Two brief passages, often on his lips, revealed his phil- 
osophy of life — "No man liveth unto himself" — "Ye 
are not your own." How clearly were these words writ- 
ten on the pages of his history. Influence consecrated 
to Christ was the end of his desire and of his deed. 

Self forgetful, he was above envy ; rejoicing in the 
success of others and hopeful for the unpromising. His 
record with the younger physicians of Harlem cannot be 
written. The good cheer, the genial help, the steadfast 
fellowship, the common sense counsel and liberal hos- 
pitality, which they have received from the " old man," 
as they fondly called him, can never be repeated. May 
the dignity and charm of his memory bind them to 



MISCELLANEOUS. 369 

that faith, which bore fruit in the warmth and beauty 
of his example. 

Again, he firmly enthroned himself through sym- 
pathy with human life in its every stage and experience. 
The sorrows and struggles of others became his own. 
He was the sheltering refuge and the trusted friend be- 
cause of his instant appreciation of your trouble. His 
consolations were swift to offer all his resources. His 
helpfulness verified these words — 

" Thy soul must overflow, if thou 
Another soul would reach ; 
It needs the overflow of heart, 
To give the lips full speech." 

This trait of character did not blur moral distinc- 
tions. He could see wrong and condemn it, but he was 
like his Lord in this also, that he pitied and yearned to 
restore the wrong doer. The secret of failure in the 
ministry of many is littleness of heart ; not want of in- 
tellectual or expressional gifts, but meagerness of sym- 
pathy. Their views of life are narrow. They know men 
after one type. They surround themselves with frigid 
proprieties that repel the affectionate impulses and deep 
questionings of souls. He was not of that class. He 
believed the Gospel to be God's spell for man ; charmful 
with power and vigorous with hope. Able to win and 
able to save because straight and fresh from the bosom 
of an everlasting Love. Under the sway of this faith he 
would not despise any soul that might fall into the dis- 
grace that brought suffering. Rejected by others there 
was forgiveness and help in him. 

His sympathy was the emphasis of that wealth of 
humanity, which he threw into all his undertakings. 
This became the source of an enthusiasm that was mag- 
netic and led captive the doubting and the irresolute. 
15* 



370 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Wherever his name was mentioned you seemed to hear 
the beat of a big heart. Time and again in the history 
of this church, when the outlook was dark and the future 
uncertain, he would become the prophet of the morning 
and of the clear path to be revealed in its light. San- 
guine in temperament and faithful in duty, he was al- 
ways an inspiration. As one upon a steamer's deck feels 
the throb of the engine and knows that he is near a force 
that helps him over the waves, so the friends of this man 
were carried by a power that often propelled against ad- 
verse currents and across the crests of maddening diffi- 
culties. 

What a nature ! thus to continuously pour itself forth ; 
only asking that you take freely, abundantly of its full- 
ness ; only content when the best had been given. If I 
could chisel upon his tomb the symbol of his free and 
generous spirit I would carve a " naming heart upon a 
broad and open hand." 

The pillars of Hiram were strong because firmly based 
and magnificently proportioned, but " on the top of the 
pillars was lily work/' In the ordinary goings of our 
friend's life you might not have guessed that he carried 
a crown of flowers. He had more than these — the sweet 
charities of life and the beauty which best adorns 
strength. 

Perhaps the most manifest, was his cheerfulness. 
This shone through his countenance, and rang in his 
voice and was the elasticity of every movement. His 
company was as exhilarating as a sea-breeze. Said one 
of his patients to me, " To have him come into a sick 
room was to be better right away." His glad vitality 
gave a new spring to your own powers of enjoyment. His 
laugh was like the gush of a full fountain, joyously 
breaking into freedom, satisfying the thirsty and quick- 
ening dry life-roots. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 371 

His nature, like a revolving mirror, reflected every- 
thing around it ; the grass by the wayside — the clouds of 
the sky — the sun-set and the stars — the little child with 
its laughter and the old man in his weariness — the sick 
under the fire of fever and the well under the glow of 
health — the bereaved by the ruins of love-altars, and the 
unsmitten rejoicing without fear ; all were reported to 
this genuinely tender and greatly true soul. 

Again, he had an exquisite appreciation of everything 
that was natural, that had the worth of being what God 
intended it to be. This directed his estimates of men 
and things. This decided his tastes ; made him quickly 
responsive. This formed the standard of his criticism 
whether in poetry, or art, or history, or character. If 
he should take up a book and read a sentiment of special 
energy or peculiar pathos, it would duplicate itself in 
his own spirit, so swiftly, that his face would flush or his 
eyes fill with tears. 

This was not a weakness but a source of invigoration 
to his manhood. It is not the weakness of an oak to 
carry the light foliage that elaborates strong roots, stout 
trunks and giant arms. The work of the leaf is as im- 
portant to it as the qualities of air and clew, the bath of 
sun-floods and the wrestling of tempests. 

Every class in this community has been stricken by 
his death. The laborer, who fights want from his door- 
sill to-day, but knows not from whence the bread for to- 
morrow will come, has lost a kind helper and healer. 

The weak woman, wasting under disease, is conscious 
this night that a form has passed from her bedside that 
cannot possibly return, and no other will take his place ; 
whose arm "was the strongest on the longest day," and 
whose mind was filled with soothing thoughts, as his 
spirit with sympathies. 

The stanch, brave soul, standing full-breasted 



372 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

against the storm-tides of the world, shakes with sobs, 
because the unfailing feet of a braver brother-soul, may 
walk with him never again through dark waters and 
under tempestuous skies. 

I behold but one sorrow, which is everywhere break- 
ing forth in tears, because the strong man sleeps in his 
grave. 

He fell suddenly. There was no dying scene of which 
I may speak to you. Just before the Angel of the Dawn 
opened the gates of morning on May 1st, the Angel of 
the Lord overstooped his pillow and whispered the sum- 
mons of departure. Of that going he had apprehen- 
sions. He said to a friend of mine, the week before he 
was cut down, il I shall be snuffed out some day," and 
to another, " I expect to die with the harness on." 

When his brethren of the profession searched for the 
cause of his sudden death, they discovered that the right 
auricle of the heart had been worn thin by the pressure 
of the blood, so thin, that it was but a piece of fine 
tissue. This was ruptured. The life currents had 
broken their channel and in a moment he was gone. 
This is significant to me in a peculiar sense. The Sun- 
day morning before he died, he sat in his pew, listening 
to the sermon, with that kindly and helpful attention 
which made him the best of hearers. I closed with a 
quotation from an humble English poet, concerning the 
veil that hangs between us and the eternal home. He 
said to a friend afterward, "T felt that it was only a 
veil ; indeed, I almost got a glimpse of heaven." For him 
sitting there the partition was very thin. Before a 
second sunrise came, a life- throb rifted the veil and he 
passed through to the perfect vision. His warfare is 
ended. The armor has been unclasped and the helmet 
exchanged for the crown. He is now and ever the right- 
ful heir of all that heaven holds. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 3?3 

But he does not simply inherit ; he has also some- 
thing to give, out of the riches of his immortal life. 
When Benjamin Parsons, of England, died, a friend 
carried the news to John Pulsford, who lowered his head 
for a moment in deep sorrow, then suddenly answered 
with a smile, " He is gone ; yes, but he has gone to 
make the heavens stronger/' Likewise our kinsman and 
brother, having triumphed in Christ, is henceforth a 
pillar in the higher temple of God. The great frame of 
life is made firmer because of his entrance. The 
heavens are stronger for us. A fresh magnetism streams 
past the stars and takes captive our thoughts and 
desires. A voice from the ' ' house not made with hands " 
calls us to be true to the laying up of treasures incor- 
ruptible, and to the elements of character that make for 
it an enduring good. What can take precedence, or be 
of greater import to you or to me, above the powers 
that matured our translated friend for his reward ? 
Humboldt has said, " The finest fruit earth holds up to 
its Maker is a finished man." Such fruit Christ seeks 
and hungers for in your lives, and shall He find at last 
nothing but leaves ? 

May His consolation to this stricken household be 
greater than their anguish ; may this darkness bring to 
them the closer pressure of His bosom ; may they be shelt- 
ered there, through all years, until one after another shall 
be lifted higher, to find broader light, sweeter peace, and 
the abiding fellowship of him, who has been taken from 
their arms. 



Our Trials. — Trials are medicines which our gracious and 
■wise physician prescribes because we need them, and he pro- 
portions the frequency and the weight of them to what the case 
requires. Let us trust in his skill, and thank him for his pre- 
scriptions. — John JSeioton. 



874 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



A COLLEGE PRESIDENT. 

THE GOOD AND FAITHFUL STEWABD. 

ON THE DEATH OP WILBUR FISK, D.D., PRESIDENT OF THE WESLEY AN UNI- 
VERSITY. 

NATHAN BANGS, D.D. 

l 'Who then is that faithful and wise steward, w7wm his Lord shall 
make rule over his household, to give them their portion of meat 
in due season?" — Luke xii: 42. 

TT^E mourn to-night, my brethren, the loss of no or- 
dinary man ! Dr. Fisk, whose thrilling accents 
you heard for the last time in this church, when he so 
feelingly and eloquently plead the cause of missions, is 
no more ! Did I say, no more ? I correct myself. He 
is no more among us. 

Yet he lives ! He lives in the recollection of thou- 
sands, to whom he was endeared by the strongest ties of 
affection, and who will long venerate his memory as an 
able minister of Jesus Christ. He lives and will long 
live and speak in those volumes which he has left as re- 
cords of his worth, and as an evidence of his deep devo- 
tion to the cause of God — of his ability to expound and 
defend the truth, while he stretched his thoughts over 
a wide field in search of theological, moral, and philo- 
sophical science. 

But he lives in a still higher sense. No longer 
shrouded by that mortal body, nor impeded in its 
expansive powers by its sluggish nature, nor de- 
pendent upon its functions either for the reception 
of its ideas or for the exercise of its energies, that undy- 
ing soul, purified by the blood of the Lamb, is now en- 
joying the fruits of its labors and sufferings in the full 
fruition of that life w r hich shall never end. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 375 

But, though in this sense he lives, and will for ever 
live, he is in another sense dead to us. And without 
anticipating evils which we may never live to realize, 
permit me to call your attention, 

I. To a brief exposition of the text. 

II. To show by a short account of the life and character 
of the Eev. Dr. Fisk, that he comes under the denomi- 
nation of a u faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord 
appointed ruler over his household." 

The text directs our attention to the following par- 
ticulars : 

1. The household. By this expression, I shall under- 
stand the Church of the living God. This is composed 
of various members, of different ages, sexes, capacities, 
dispositions, and pursuits in life. These require food; 
that is, instruction, admonition, reproof or encourage- 
ment, suited to their respective ages, capacities, disposi- 
tions, and their several callings. It is the business of a 
faithful and wise steward to seek out these several mem- 
bers of God's household, to ascertain their wants, and to 
furnish them with the needful "food." 

2. Tfie faithful and wise steward, I shall under- 
stand as designating that minister or pastor whom God 
hath appointed over his household. That man may be 
denominated wise who perfectly understands the peculiar 
duties of his profession. 

A wise minister of the gospel is one who is 
"thoroughly furnished unto every good work" — fully 
understands the law and the gospel — is able to explain 
and defend them, and suitably to apply them to the va- 
riety of cases which may come within his observation. 

A wise steward, therefore, is one who has so applied 
himself to the study of divine truth that he has a com- 
prehensive knowledge of the economy of salvation, of 



876 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

the law and the gospel,, and of all those helps afforded 
by the providence and grace of G-od for the furtherance 
of his cause among the inhabitants of our world. 

3. A faithful steward is that minister of Jesus Christ 
who applies his wisdom to experimental and practical 
purposes. Fidelity in the improvement of time, in the 
right application of attainments, whether intellectual or 
spiritual, is the '*' one thing needful " to entitle a minister 
of Jesus Christ to become " a ruler over his household." 

The faithful steward watches with diligence over the 
several members of this household, adapts his instruc- 
tions to their different ages, circumstances, variety of 
dispositions, and peculiarity of callings in life. He 
dilligently employs all his time and talent in doing good. 
His knowledge he uses for practical ends. He makes 
his theory have a practical bearing upon himself and 
others. He watches over those intrusted to his care with 
the tender solicitude of a father, giving them all a k( por- 
tion of meat in due season." 

4. Such a man is rewarded by being made a ruler over 
the household of G-od. Being eminently fitted by both 
to 'isdoni and fidelity , for this high and responsible station, 
God puts him in his place, and makes him a ruler over 
that portion of his family where his talents may be most 
usefully employed for the improvement and salvation of 
immortal souls. 

By a ruler, I understand one that takes an oversight 
of some particular department of the church, and is there- 
fore held responsible for whatever may be transacted by 
those placed under his care. Here his wisdom and fidel- 
ity are eminently brought into practical operation. 

II. Whether or not Dr. Fisk was thus qualified for a 
"faithful and wise steward," whom God made ruler over 
his household to give them their meat in due season, 
will appear from a review of his life and character. . . . 



MISCELLANEOUS. 37? 

On his return from Europe, lie re-entered upon the 
duties of his station with the same distinguished zeal and 
eminent ability by which he sustained himself from 
the time of his entrance upon that important trust. 

I need scarcely say to you that he died as the Chris- 
tian dieth, "full of faith of the Holy Ghost." "Hay- 
ing served his own generation by the will of God, he has 
fallen asleep," and now rests from his labors among the 
blessed and illustrious dead. 

Thus ended the labors, the sufferings, and the mortal 
existence of the Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D., President of 
the Wesleyan University — a man who united in himself 
the graces of the Christian, the gentleman, and the 
scholar, as well as the purity and dignity of the minister 
of Jesus Christ. 

It now only remains to present some of those excel- 
lent traits of character by which he was distinguished. 

1. His learning, though, perhaps, not so deep and 
thorough as that of some others, was nevertheless sound, 
various, and of the most useful character. 

2. His religious experience was deep and genuine. 
This was fully evinced by the uniformity of his piety, 
the humility of his mind, and his ardent devotion to the 
cause of his Divine Master. 

His efforts to do good were limited only by his means. 
On a certain occasion he was heard to say, "As I have no 
children of my own to provide for, I feel it my duty to 
do all I can for the benefit of others." Acting on this 
principle he devoted all his energies of soul and body to 
the best interests of his fellow men. 

3. Though deeply interested in the cause of educa- 
tion, yet he considered it only so far important as it was 
made subservient to the spiritual and eternal welfare of 
men. 

The holy influence which was collected around the 



378 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Wesleyan University, by the power of his precept and 
example, seconded as he was by his associates and the 
official board, was extensively felt on the surrounding 
population, and gave it a commanding character in the 
community. 

His invariable maxim was, that sanctified learning 
only can be useful to mankind. 

4. His talents as a preacher of the gospel were of a 
high order. He entered deeply and systematically into 
theological truth, and was thoroughly Wesleyan in his 
views of the gospel, and the methods of diffusing its 
blessings among mankind. Though never boisterous in 
his maimer, but calm and collected he was energetic, 
plain, and pointed, and evinced that he spoke from the 
fulness of his heart — a heart thoroughly imbued with the 
spirit of his Divine Master. 

He was an original thinker. 

His manner in the pulpit was solemn, graceful, and 
dignified ; his enunciation clear and impressive ; and all 
his gesticulations corresponded to the purity and import- 
ance of the cause in which he was engaged. 

5. Dr. Fisk wielded a powerful pen. The few printed 
sermons he has left behind him bespeak for him the 
sound divine, the able advocate of revealed truth, and 
the fearless defender of experimental and practical 
religion. 

6. Instead of towering above his fellows by an exhi- 
bition of any one talent of superior strength and brilli- 
ancy, in him were concentrated that cluster of excellen- 
cies which constituted a nicely balanced mind, admira- 
bly adapted to the variety of calls which were made upon 
bis time and abilities. This concentration of excellencies 
created the symmetry of character which so beautifully 
displayed itself on all occasions, and so eminently fitted 
him to move in the various circles of usefulness in which 



MISCELLANEOUS. 379 

he was called to exercise his gifts. And in the exercise 
of these gifts, it was evident that he studied to be useful 
rather than great, though it is equally manifest that 
his greatness of character resulted from the usefulness 
of his life and labors. 

7. But that which characterized Dr. Fisk among his 
fellows, and rendered him so eminently useful, was the 
deep vein of evangelical piety which ran through all his 
performances, and exerted a hallowing influence over 
his own mind and the minds of others. This blended 
itself in his private studies, mingled in his social inter- 
course, graced and sanctified all his public administra- 
tions, whether in the pulpit, on the platform, or in the 
discharge of his duties as president of the university. 

8. In his social intercourse he sweetly blended the 
meekness of the Christian and the gravity of the minis- 
ter with the urbanity of the gentleman and the graces 
of the scholar. To the common courtesies of life he was 
never inattentive, well knowing that Christianity distin- 
guishes her children no less by the " gentleness *' of their 
manners, and the delicate attention to the niceties of 
relative duties, than she does by the sternness of her re- 
quirements in favor of purity of motive and conduct. 

9. Though inspired with that spirit of Catholicism 
which embraces all denominations as constituting one 
Christian brotherhood, he was, nevertheless, cordially at- 
tached from principle to the doctrine, discipline, and 
usages of the church to which he belonged, and of which 
he was such a distinguished ornament. Wesley he vener- 
ated as the first man of his age, as the greatest of modern 
reformers, as a sound divine, and as one of the most evan- 
gelical, laborious, and successful ministers of Jesus 
Christ. 

10. It remains only that we look at him as the head 
of the Wesleyan University. Here he seemed to be the 



380 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

center of attraction to all connected with the institution, 
whether as professors, directors, or as students. His 
counsel was respected, his precepts observed, and his ex- 
ample considered worthy of the imitation of all. He 
ruled more from the love and respect which were felt 
and entertained for his character, than from a fear of his 
frown, though the latter was dreaded in exact proportion 
to the esteem felt for his exalted worth. 

Finally, we may say, that ' ' Whatsoever things were 
lovely, pure, and of good report/' in religion and morals, 
in learning and science, in spirit and conduct, were, in 
an eminent degree concentrated in him, and sweetly and 
harmoniously blending their united influence in his heart 
and life, gave a symmetry, a finish and polish to his char- 
acter, worthy of love and admiration ; and although as 
a human being he must have felt and exhibited the com- 
mon infirmities of our nature, yet, having been disci- 
plined by education, refined by grace, and improved by 
reading and extensive observation, he may be safely held 
up as an exemplar for the imitation of the Christian, 
and the minister of Jesus Christ, as well as those to 
whom are committed the interests of the youth of our 
land. 

The doctrine of the text then has had an illustration 
in the life and conduct of Dr. Fisk. He furnished the 
most indubitable evidence of being a faithful and ivise 
steward in whatever relation he sustained to the church ; 
and hence he became, in the order of divine providence 
and grace, a ruler over God's household, and he gave 
them their portion of instruction suited to the various 
relations and circumstances in life, until his Lord said 
unto him ; — " Well done, thou good and faithful servant ; 
thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make 
thee ruler over many things ; enter thou into the joy of 
thy Lord." Amen. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 381 



A BISHOP. 

MEMORIAL DISCOURSE ON REY. E. S. JANES, D.D., LL.D., 

LATE SENIOR BISHOP OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 
REV. C. H. FOWLER, CD., LL.D. 

nPHE first Napoleon, when crossing the Alps, saw an 
old peasant woman hastening through the moun- 
tains, and he asked her, "Whither are you hastening 
this sharp morning?" She said, " To yonder pass to 
see the emperor/' He asked, " What have you gained 
in him more than in the Bourbons ? Have you not 
simply exchanged one despot for another f" The old 
peasant woman stopped, thought a moment, and then 
answered, " The Bourbons were the rulers of the rich 
and great ; Napoleon is our ruler." We are here to-day, 
to pay a tribute of greatful remembrance to the cherished 
and honored dead, because Bishop Janes was the bishop 
of the common people. With a scholarship that made 
him at home in the company of the learned and philo- 
sophical, with tastes that could revel in the refinements 
of a select few, with every social circle welcoming his 
approach, and with resources sufficient to make these 
varied advantages a delight and not a burden, he still 
remained, in his convictions, in his habits, in his home, 
in his sympathies, and in his affections, the brother of 
the laborer and the friend of the poor ; and the very 
last business act of his open right hand was to answer 
to a cry for help. As a Missionary Society we have lost 
a mighty friend, who labored and planned and lived for 
us, who cared for our souls, and who sought the society 
of the wealthy only for our sakes. He is our dead, there- 
fore, are we here. . . . 

The elements out of which Bishop Janes' greatness 
was constructed were simple and easily apprehended. 



382 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

They are on the surface of his transparent character. 
They are open to the gaze of the common observer. It 
is difficult to grasp a sphere. It slips from the grasp. 
We must encompass it to hold it. This is the problem 
before us. Thus it happens that a man is comprehended 
only by his peers. We need not add that Bishop Janes 
must wait for a biographer. Let us catalogue the com- 
ponent parts of this character. 

Let us place reason at the head of the list, next his 
Common sense .... his Conscience ... his Ambi- 
tion ... his Courage . . . his Affection . . . 

So rounded and complete was his character that, ap- 
proached from almost any side, it seemed to be greatest. 
At first sight he seemed not so great ; but as we worked 
up into his abilities they grew to the limit of our com- 
prehension. His powers were like groups of mountain 
peaks towering up side by side, and so close together as 
to reduce each other's apparent height. Only the accu- 
rate tests of science show their great elevation above the 
sea. The group of the exalted peaks in this wonderful 
man I would call his common sense, his conscience, his 
will, his concentration, his ambition, his industry, and 
his economy of power. Other peculiarities, seen in them- 
selves, would have made him a marked man ; but I 
think these are the peaks with which he held up the 
crown of his greatness. 

The elements were so evenly mixed in him, and the 
powers so nicely poised, that he seemed able to do his 
best on all occasions and under any circumstances. 

As & preacher, he had few superiors. As a platform 
speaher, he could come in any part of any programme, 
and be heard, enjoyed, and remembered. 

As a pastor, he was methodical, exact, easy, and with- 
out a blemish. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 383 

He was an orator, of superior parts. " He was elo- 
quent." 

He was a thinker, able to trace and reveal the hidden 
relations of truths. 

He was a writer of great ability. 

He was a statesman, measured by his papers and by 
the wisdom of his administration. 

He was an organizer, handling with ease and ability 
the system of superintendencies that constitute Methodist 
polity. 

He was a leader, not rushing into revolution, but 
steadily moving up toward the advance line as rapidly as 
it became reform instead of schism. 

He was an administrator, when it became necessary 
for him to assume responsibility he did it so gently that 
all felt relieved to have it finally determined. 

As a bishop he was a model. 

Bishop Janes must be ranked among the great men 
of the Christian Church, and his greatness must endure. 
We hardly call the ephemeral great ; we want our great- 
ness to abide. Meteors that flash out upon the darkness 
only long enough to reveal the gloom and oblivion into 
which they rush are not types of greatness. Suns that 
shine on forever rather impress us thus. Bishop Janes 
will stand this test. 

The only man who could give any exhaustive catalogue 
of the duties and work of Bishop Janes is now voiceless 
in the grave. We can figure the weight of the atmos- 
phere on a square inch, or on the surface of the city, or 
on the earth itself ; but no man has found the outside 
spot on which to correctly measure the weight of "the 
care of all the Churches." Gethsemane is the type of 
that outside spot. We can go with this little man of 
great achievements through the ceaseless round of his 
duties, watch him on the wing, like the bee gathering 



384 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

honey for the marriage-supper from every field on earth ; 
yesterday seeking to steady some wavering brother in the 
streets of Boston, to-day journeying on foot among the 
camps of the miners near the Golden Gate, to-morrow 
searching in the crowded cities of heathenism for the 
picket line of Christianity, crossing oceans, scaling 
mountains, traversing continents, till the surface of the 
world seemed more familiar to him than the retreats of 
his home, and the faces and wants of the great army of 
workers in all lands were more definitely fixed in his 
memory than the faces of the neighbors of his family. 
"We can watch him working right on, year in and year 
out, knowing no vacations except the quiet of the light- 
ning express, or the repose of the midnight jerky of 
the frontier, and asking no rest but hard work. 

The life of Bishop Janes had but one purpose, and 
his death could leave but one testimony. The light 
that is brighter than the noonday sun, that had been 
shining into his life for nearly fifty years, could not fail 
him in the dark valley. He has walked with God so 
many years, and so often pointed the dying and sorrow- 
ing to the city with gates of pearl, and streets of gold, 
and palaces of fire, and thones of light, that all these 
things are familiar to the eye of his faith. He enters 
heaven, from the harvest-field of the world, with the 
quietness of perfect repose. I know of nothing grander 
in the history of the race. In thought I have gone 
out through the Gate of the Martyrs in Rome with 
Paul as lie went forth to kiss the headsman's ax. ' ' I am 
now ready to be offered. ... I have fought a good 
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith : 
henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness." Only such a soul as Paul could use such an ex- 
perience. I have walked yonder with Elijah, and caught 
the rapture of his soul as he neared the Jordan ; I have 



MISCELLANEOUS. 385 

watched this grand old prophet of the mountains, who 
had lived in the solitude of nature's grandest scones, who 
had gazed with eye undimmed on the clouds of fire that 
wrapped the mountain summit, and stood with courage 
unabated, with his foot on the heaving bosom of the 
earthquake ; I have seen this man step into the chariot 
of Israel, and ascend in a whirlwind of fire, and I have 
been awed, as in the presence of God. But to my mind 
there is something unlike these, indeed, but in its kind 
not inferior in calm sublimity, in the dying of Bishop 
Janes. At the end of his worldly journey he pauses a 
moment in the bed of the Jordan, and, looking straight 
up into the face of God, he says, "I am not disap- 
pointed." 

Brothers, the substantial part of this life we may re- 
peat. Most of its greatness lies within the reach of a 
holy ambition and consecrated will. Average gifts, con- 
centrated into power, exercised into greatness, purified 
into strength, glorified into beauty, vitalized by the di- 
vine Spirit, and driven by an absolute, despotic, resist- 
less, omnipotent will, can repeat the wonders of this 
character as often as the world needs such leaders. May 
the mantle of this man fall upon the young men entering 
the ministry till every ear on earth hears the good news, 
and every seat in heaven by the side of Paul is occupied ! 



" When I get to Heaven, I shall see three wonders there. 
The first wonder will be to see people there that I did not ex- 
pect; the second wonder will be to miss many persons whom I 
did expect to see; and the third and greatest wonder of all will 
be to find myself there." — John Newton. 
17 



386 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



A PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

A WISE AND FAITHFUL KULER. 
JOHN M'CLINTOCK, D.D., LL.D. 

ON THE DAY OF THE FUNERAL OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, IN ST. PAUL'S M. E. 
CHURCH, N. Y. 

Remember fTiem which ham the rule over you, . . . whose faith 
follow. — Heb. xiii : 7. 

TT is the Lord ; His will be done. The blow has 
stunned the nation. Had we no trust in Him who 
conquers even the last enemy, the " victory of the 
grave " which calls us together to-day would fill us with 
despair, and even with all the light which the word of 
God affords, and with all the strength which our faith 
in God gives us, we can still only say, ' ' His way is in 
the sea, and His path in the deep waters/' We shall 
know hereafter what He doeth ; but we know not now. 
" Remeinber," says our text, and "follow" 
There is little fear of onr forgetting — there is little fear 
of the world forgetting the name of Abraham Lincoln. 
It was the remark of Heine, the German poet and satirist, 
that " men preserve the memory of their destroyers 
better than that of their benefactors ; the warrior's 
name outlasts the philanthropist's." There is some truth 
in this, taking the world's history as it has been. But 
it is one of the best signs of the times that men's hearts 
are more than ever attracted by moral greatness, and 
that all laurels are not stained with blood. The day is 
dawning, even though its rising sun be dimmed by 
clouds, and struggles up amid gloom, and tears, and 
blood, in which the glory of the reformer shall outshine 
that of the conqueror — in which the 

Saints of humanity, strong, yet tender, 
Making the present hopeful with their life, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 387 

shall be held the true heroes in men's thoughts, as they 
are the true heroes in the progress of humanity, and 
before the eye of God. And to this heroic class belongs 
the name of Abraham Lincoln, who fell, if ever man 
did, fighting the battles of humanity. 

The bullet of the assassin has done the work of an 
age. To-day that name stands as high before this whole 
people, of all parties, of all sects, of all classes, as it 
would have stood in half a century, had the blow of the 
assassin never fallen. Party spirit, for the time at least, 
is dead. Who thinks of party now ? 

The streets of the city of New York, and of every 
city in the Union, from Portland to San Francisco, are 
clad in mourning. I have been struck, in going through 
the poorer streets of this city, to find the emblems of 
sorrow more general, if possible, on the abodes of the 
humble and the lowly, than on the stately dwellings of 
the rich in the grand avenues. All over this land, and 
over all the civilized world, I dare say, there shall be 
grief and mourning in the hearts and homes of those 
who are called the " common people " — of whom was 
Abraham Lincoln. The " ruling classes n abroad will 
grieve also, but for a very different reason. 

But, while there will be real grief among the ruling 
classes, there shall be sorrow of another sort among all 
who have hoped and struggled for the future equality of 
the race, and who, these four weary years, have been 
watching the issues of our great war for freedom, with 
an intensity of feeling only next to our own. 

And now let us ask why all this sorrow ? "Whence 
this universal love ? Certainly it was not intellectual 
grandeur that so drew all hearts toward Lincoln. But it 
is stupid to talk of him as a man of mean intellect. He 
had a giant's work to do, and he has done it nobly. 
Even in his speeches and writings, where defects of form 



388 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

reveal the want of early culture and give room for the 
carping of petty critics who can see no farther than the 
form, I do not fear to say that the calm criticism of 
history will find marks of the highest power of mind. 
With such gifts as God gave him, he was enabled to 
pierce to the very core of a matter, while others, with 
their fine rhetoric, could only talk around it. 

Yet it was not for the intellect, but for the moral 
qualities of the man that we loved him. It is a wise 
order of Providence that it is so that men are drawn. 
We never love cold intellect. We may admire it ; we 
may wonder at it ; sometimes we may even worship it, 
but we never love it. The hearts of men leap out only 
after the image of God in man, and the image of God in 
man is love. Oh ! what a large and loving heart was 
stilled last Friday ! How fine, how tender, bow all-em- 
bracing was the love of that old man ! Men of all class- 
es were alike won by his personal magnetism. Those 
who have traduced him most, and those who have been 
most carried away by the blind fury of partisan hate, and 
have gone to Washington to see him, have always come 
away disarmed. 

The entire absence of vindictiveness, either personal 
or political, was one of the ripe fruits of Lincoln's native 
tenderness. Did you ever hear of his saying a hard 
thing of his opponents ? After all the vile calumnies 
heaped upon him at home and abroad, did you ever know 
him to utter a single word showing personal hate, or 
even personal feeling ? It is a marvelous record. He 
lived as he died : the last of his public utterances closed 
with the words, " With malice towards none, with char- 
ity for all." This phrase will fall hereafter into that 
small number of phrases, not Scripture, but which men 
often cite, unwittingly, as though they were. 

Another striking element of his moral nature was his 



MISCELLANEOUS. 389 

profound faith — a faith not like that of the man who 
now stands at the head of the French people, a blind 
fatalistic confidence in his own destiny, or in the destiny 
of the system with which he is identified. Nor yet 
merely an uncalculating faith in the wisdom, virtue or 
steadfastness of the American people. Abraham Lin- 
coln had this, indeed ; but it was not all : he had a 
profound religious faith : not simply a general recogni- 
tion of the law of order in the universe, but a profound 
faith in a Personal God. Of his personal religious expe- 
rience I can not speak of my own knowledge, but we 
have more than one cheering testimony about it. I have 
been assured that ever after the battle of Gettysburgh he 
was daily in the habit of supplicating in prayer the throne 
of divine grace, as a believer in Jesus Christ, and that 
from that time he classed himself with believers. Oh ! 
what prayers those must have been in the dark days of 
'63, and how wondrously bas God answered them. 

I shall not speak of the patriotism of Abraham Lin- 
coln, though it is one of the points of which I had in- 
tended to speak, but you know all about it. You know 
what a tremendous duty fell to him, and how he did 
it all the way through ; seduced by no blandishment, 
frightened by no threats from the steady pursuit of his 
one duty — to restore the integrity of the government. 
How far he succeeded is known to you all. The " forts 
and places" which he said he would retake are all ours 
to-day, and the main army of the rebellion is scattered 
and gone ! 

The manners of Abraham Lincoln have been a mat- 
ter of a great deal of comment, and of snobbish com- 
ment too. If unaffected simplicity, the most entire 
ease, and the power to put one's visitor at ease, and do 
it unconsciously ; if these are the ultimate results and 
the final tests of refinement, as they unquestionably are, 



396 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

then was he the peer of any nobleman in manners. 
When you shall learn to be as easy, as gentle, as truly 
unaffected, as free from all thought of yourself, as Abra- 
ham Lincoln was, then indeed will you have finished 
manners. What if there were a few accidental remnants 
of his former habits ? Of all people in the world, we 
are the very last that should think of these. 

We had no fear about Abraham Lincoln, except the 
fear that he would be too forgiving. Oh ! what an epitaph 
— that the only fear men had was that he would be too 
tender, that he had too much love ; in a word, that he 
was too Christ-like ! In coming ages, it shall not be the 
least idea of his titles to the veneration and love of 
mankind, that his compeers found no fault with him, 
except that he had too much love. 

Dear friends, the life of Abraham Lincoln is closed. 
After a very, very stormy voyage, the ship has reached 
her harbor at last. And how after all these tempests, 
these fierce blasts, these rising floods, how did the ship 
sail in ? Shattered and sinking, with sails all torn and 
rent ? No, dear friends, God ordered it otherwise. Not 
a mark of the storm was on the noble vessel ; the hull 
was sound, the spars were strong, the sails were spread, 
with the broad flag flying again as it never waved before, 
and with pennants of red, white and blue streaming 
gloriously and triumphantly over all, the ship sailed into 
port, and the angels of God said their glad "All hail I" 
So now say I — and I venture to speak in your behalf, 
as well as my own — Abraham Lincoln, Patriot, Philan- 
thropist, Christian, Martyr, Hail ! and Farewell ! 

And now, what are to be the results of this tragedy 
to the country and mankind ? It is God that rules, and 
already we see that, even in this terrible crime, He has 
made the wrath of man to praise Him. One thing is clear 
— even now the American people are united as they were 



MISCELLANEOUS. 391 

never united before. The Republic is not gone, thank 
God, but stands out in grander proportions, is established 
upon a firmer foundation than ever before. In the four 
days that have passed since the shot that laid Abraham 
Lincoln low, the work of fifty years in the consolida- 
tion of the Eepublic has been done. The morning of 
the same day that saw one President die, saw another 
quietly inaugurated and as quietly performing his func- 
tions. 

Another lesson we have learned is this : that in our 
government no one man is essential. The Harpers have 
just published a book by Louis Napoleon Bonaparte on 
the Life of Julius Caesar. Its object is to teach the 
world that it must be governed by its great men ; that 
they make epochs and not merely mark them. How 
suddenly that book has been refuted, and what a blow has 
been given to this gospel of Napoleon, by the assassination 
of Lincoln and its issues. Here is one greater than 
Caesar, struck down as Caesar was, and yet the pillars of 
the Republic are unshaken. What a pitiful anachronism 
does the Imperial plea for Caesarism appear, in presence 
of the dead Lincoln, and the mourning, yet living and 
triumphant Republic ! 

Let us now gather one or two practical lessons for 
ourselves and our children. Hatred of assassination is 
one of these lessons, if, indeed, we needed to learn it. 
The work that Brutus did to Caesar was just as bad a 
work as that of Booth to Lincoln. It was centuries be- 
fore humanity recovered from the poisoned wound it 
received from the stroke of the dagger that pierced the 
breast of Caesar. Teach your children, moreover, not 
only to hate assassination, but treason as well ; for treason 
breeds assassins, as it breeds all other forms of crime and 
wrong. You cannot be too severe upon it in your 
thoughts or in your talk ; you are severe upon the rob- 



392 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

ber and the assassin ; shall you be lenient toward the 
treason which has begotten both robbery and assassin- 
ation ? 

Remember, too, that as treason is the parent of assas- 
sination, so slavery has been the parent of treason. Is it 
necessary for me to exhort you to teach your children to 
hate slavery too ? In this one thing I ask you to join 
with me this day. Let us bow ourselves before Almighty 
God, and vow that so far as in us lies, none of us will 
ever agree to any pacification of this land, until slavery 
be utterly extirpated. 

One more lesson, and not the least. If anything I 
have said, or anything that you read or hear in these sad 
days, breeds within you a single revengeful feeling, even 
towards the leaders of this rebellion, then think of 
Abraham Lincoln, and pray God to make you merciful. 
Think of the prayer of Christ, which the President said, 
after his Saviour, " Father, forgive them, they know not 
what they do/' Let there be no place for revenge in our 
souls ; justice we may and must demand, but revenge, 
never. " Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the 
Lord." I counsel you also to discountenance all dis- 
order, all attempts by private persons to avenge the public 
wrong, or even to punish sympathizers with treason. 
The region of slavery was the natural home of such 
things as these ; let us have none of them. And soon, 
when the last shackles shall have fallen, and throughout 
our land, from sea to sea, there shall be no master and no 
slave, the blessed Peace shall come, for which we have 
looked, and prayed, and fought so long, when the Re- 
public shall be established upon the eternal foundations 
of Freedom and Justice, to stand, we trust, by the 
blessing of God, down to the last syllable of recorded 
Time. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 893 



A WIFE. 



ALBERT S. HUNT, D.D., IN BROOKLYN. 

AT THE FUNERAL OP MRS. MARY C. FOSS, WIFE OF BISHOP FOSS, BROOKLYN. 

" Jesus said unto her, 1 am the Resurrection and the Life. 1 ' 
—John xi: 25. 

A FEIEND lias been removed. Eight days before 
God received her to himself she took her little 
child by the hand, and walking in a meditative and 
thankful mood to a graveyard, upon one of the hillsides 
of her native town, seated herself in waiting for a funeral 
procession, which was to accompany, from the village a 
few miles distant, the remains of a young patriot, who 
had given his life to Christ and his country. 

It is " a joy forever," to look upon the landscape 
which was spread before her, on that bright Sabbath 
afternoon. 

She waited long for the funeral train, but the hour 
of her waiting was not lost. Aside from the numberless 
associations of her early life, which could have been 
awakened only to do her good, the praises which then 
and there ascended to God, must have moved her soul 
like a grand choral service. The prophecy was verified 
— " The mountains shall bring peace." 

But the bearers of the dead are at hand. They enter 
the gateway. Slowly, silently, and with that peculiar 
thoughtfulness which makes a funeral in the country 
so unlike a funeral in the city, the sad train moves 
toward the grave. The silence is broken by the voice of 
the minister of Christ. "I am the resurrection and the 
17* 



394 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet 
shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me 
shall never die." 

The soul of our sister was thrilled as it had never 
been thrilled before, by the peerless glory of this central 
doctrine of the Gospel. Tears started in her eyes. Then 
He, whose way it is to " still the enemy by ordaining 
strength out of the mouth of babes/' put it into the 
heart of her child of two summers to pluck a flower, and 
with cheering words, place it in her mother's hand, as 
the answer to those tears. 

We discover something in the lessons of the hour in 
the graveyard, culminating as they do in such touching 
symbolism, which illustrates better than studied devices, 
Paul's sublime argument concerning the resurrection of 
the dead. 

And these words of Jesus, "lam the Resurrection 
and the Life!" 

This is the central word of one of the most simple, 
lucid, and affecting narratives of the Gospel. It implies 
that the dead shall be raised at the last day, and more, 
it declares that the power of this final resurrection, 
even then encompassed the sorrowing Martha, and her 
sleeping brother. He is the Resurrection and the Life 
— " the Resurrection " because he is " the Life." Herein 
rested her hope, and his glory. 

Let us name some familiar ideas concerning Jesus, 
upon the consideration of which we may enter with the 
hope of reaching a position from which our faith may 
readily lay hold upon him as "the Resurrection." They 
are these : His Wisdom; His Tenderness, and His 
Power. 

I. Very many are the evidences we have of the Wis- 
dom of Jesus. He so selects and arranges his proofs, that 



MISCELLANEOUS. 395 

the heart of humanity opens healthfully under then- 
light and warmth. He does not blind and bewilder us 
with the glory of the miracle in Bethany, because we 
have been prepared for it, by less dazzling displays of his 
power over death. The "ruler's daughter" opens the 
way for the coming of the "widow's son," and it was 
needful that both should go before the loved one of 
Bethany. But more than this, the raising of Lazarus 
did not furnish full proof of His avowal, "I am the 
Resurrection and the Life." This miracle,- also, was 
preparatory, and thus humanity was not withered, but 
cheered by the brilliant testimony which afterward 
came from the tomb in the garden of Joseph of Arima- 
thea. 

Thus, beginning with a meditation upon his Wis- 
dom, we are led in a few steps to his grave, and feel 
how truly he is "the Way" to himself as " the Resur- 
rection." 

II. Let us seek another path. Here is the Tender- 
ness of Jesus. It is always manifesting itself. 

But here in the narrative concerning the sickness and 
death of Lazarus, are words which give a shock to our 
faith in his tenderness. The sisters send a message to 
Jesus. "He whom thou lovest is sick." No more is 
said. This surely would be enough. It would be a 
waste of words to add, " Come and see him." They were 
confident that he would come at once, as the friend and 
the healer. And do you not hope with them ? Would 
you not have expected that the narrative from this point 
would read something in this way : — Now Jesus loved 
Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus, and therefore he has- 
tened to Bethany ? But it tells us that he loved them, 
and therefore he tarried for two days where he was. 
What can explain this apparent inconsistency ? The 



396 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

answer is here. " This sickness is not unto death, but 
for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be 
glorified thereby." In other words : The sickness 
was not unto death, but unto the resurrection from 
death. 

Gladly would he have hastened to Bethany, but he 
denied himself that he might open a way in which he 
could lead humanity to a better understanding of his 
words, "lam the Eesurrection and the Life/' 

Thus beginning with the tenderness of Jesus, our es- 
tablished views are first violated by a strange delay, and 
then by a gladness still more strange. We seek an ex- 
planation, and find it at the grave in Bethany, where he 
teaches us by a preparatory miracle, to look on toward 
him as "the Eesurrection." 

III. We seek still another path and would come near 
to Jesus as ' ' the Resurrection " by the way of his Power. 
I know of no display of his power which more amazes 
me than that which was needful to subject himself, as 
iC The Life," to the power of death. How expressive 
are his own words ! " I lay down my life that I might 
take it again." Who doubts now that he is " the Resur- 
rection and the Life ?" Not only has he come forth from 
the grave himself, but even while his power was in exer- 
cise, to the end that death might have a temporary hold 
upon him, he was so truly " the Life " that from his 
very tomb currents of vitality were issuing which found 
their way into the graves of many, and quietly put them 
in readiness to go forth with the Lord of Life. 

Are you ever perplexed in your meditations upon 
the resurrection of the dead ? Gome back from your 
vain speculations ! The mystery is too great for you. 
Come bury your face in the bosom of your risen Lord. 
You are risen already ! 



MISCELLANEOUS. 397 

This is what the Saviour meant when he said, "I am 
the Eesurrection and the Life." It is what Paul had in 
his heart when he talked of the power of the resurrec- 
tion " as something he could know, and when he ad- 
dressed the Ooiossians as those who were already " risen 
with Christ/ 5 

0, for faitli in Jesus "the Eesurrection!" 

The friend whose sudden death has called us together 
knew the power of the resurrection in this highest 
sense. 

It is time that I should speak of her. 

She was born in the town of Salisbury, in the State 
of Connecticut, in the year 1832. Her parents, who still 
survive her, are worthy representatives of a consistent, 
prayerful, cheerful type of Methodism. Unlike many, 
they have ever acted under the promptings of a convic- 
tion that religion should be a power and a joy at the 
fireside. 

The consistent living and the prayers of these parents, 
more probably than all other agencies combined, have 
been instrumental in leading a large family of children, 
of which our friend was one of the youngest, to know 
the bliss of a personal trust in Christ. Our sister was 
never able to mark the precise period of her conversion. 
When a child, only eight or nine years of age, she was 
often seen at the altar of God seeking his favor. After- 
ward she was greatly moved under the ministrations of 
Dr. Davis W. Clark, who was stationed in her native 
town, but it was in the quietude of her own home 
and in conversation with her mother, that she was 
first awakened to the consciousness of God's personal 
favor. 

The leading lesson of her life is one concerning the 
blessed?iess of Christian nurture. She was trained for 






398 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

God and grew up into Christ. Now this was a gain not 
only because it blessed her with a longer day of Christ- 
ian service, but it was a gain also, because the impres- 
sions made upon the heart of Childhood by the holy 
living and words of parents, are more potent to uphold, 
restrain, and comfort in after life than any other class of 
influences. Our departed friend never knew how to be 
sufficiently thankful for the religious atmosphere and 
sway of the home of her early days. Among her first 
wishes, ag she began to recover from sickness a few 
months ago, was that her parents should be informed 
" how richly she had been reaping during the most seri- 
ous illness of her life, the fruits of the excellent Christ- 
ian training she had received at their hands." Passages 
of Scripture which had been impressed upon her heart 
in the home conversations of her childhood were the 
abiding benedictions of her sick room, and even passages 
of the family prayer offered long before, came back to 
bless her. Fathers and mothers ! the choicest blessing 
you can bestow upon your children is a pure Christian 
nurture. 

Another point demands our thought as it finds illus- 
tration in the life of our departed friend. Her religion 
was not a garment worn, but an influence absorbed, and 
the result was that her life was not only luminous but 
uniform. It seemed easy for her to pass from the com- 
mon topics of conversation to the higher themes of 
faith. 

And now shall I attempt to sketch her as she ap- 
peared at her own fireside ? I could not if I would, and 
I would not. There are sacred memories of the loved 
and gone which are all our own. Enough for me to say 
here, She was a Christian mother and a Christian wife. 
My brother ! y#u shall keep the rest, "We have no right 
in it ! 



MISCELLANEOUS. 399 

Her death was sudden, but she was ready to die — 
ever ready ! When she came down to the borders of the 
grave a few months ago, she was abundantly supported 
by grace. Her sick-room seemed to her " like the very 
temple of God, and her bed an altar. " Her soul was 
elated with a buoyant hope. She was not simply will- 
ing to go, but jubilant in view of the heavenly glory. 
Jesus was to her faith es The Resurrection and the Life," 
and she was glad to entrust herself and her dearest 
friends to his wonderful keeping. 

She has left us. Do not let us say that her life was 
incomplete, for in the light which streams from the 
sacred page, we see that there can be no such thing as 
an unfinished Christian life. 

My brother ! I think I have some true sympathy for 
you, but just because it is true it will find some more 
fitting place than this to express itself. 

Cling to the Cross ! and forget not that " a full hand 
has the loosest grasp, and withered tendrils cling closer 
than the green." 

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give 
thee peace ! Amen. 



" 'Tis past 1 'tis past ! but I gaze on it now 
With quivering breath and throbbing brow : 
'Twas there she nursed me — 'twas there she died, 
And memory flowed with lava tide — 
Say it is folly and deem me weak, 
While the scalding tears run down my cheek. 
But I love it— I love it, and cannot tear 
My soul from my mother's old arm-chair." 



400 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES.. 



A FIREMAN. 

THE LAST FIRE. 
ON THE DEATH OF ME. BEAIDWOOD, 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE LONDON FIRE BRIGADE. 

JOHJT CUMMING, D. D. 

IN THE SCOTCH NATIONAL CHURCH, LONDON. 

Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of per- 
sons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness. — 2 Pet. iii: 1. 

T DO not intend to pass eulogiums on those that are 
gone, but simply, practically and plainly, to illus- 
trate facts that have occupied a place, and stirred the 
souls, and awakened interest in almost every inhabitant 
of London. 

" All things/' infidelity observed of old, " must con- 
tinue as they have been from the beginning." It needs 
but common sense, and a fair and impartial survey of 
our world, to come to a very opposite conclusion. There 
is nothing in the world permanent but what belongs to 
heaven. Change, deterioration, or improvement is the 
experience of every man. 

There are evidences of change taking place everywhere. 
On the great earth itself a vast change will take place. 
Just as there was a flood, we are told, so a day will come, 
when the Lord " will come as a thief in the night," (un- 
expectedly) " in which the heavens shall pass away with 
a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat ; the earth also, and the works that are therein 
shall be burned up." I always rejoice to quote science, 
not to authenticate the Bible, which would be absurd, 
but because it is always refreshing to be able to quote 
science as elucidating and bearing out the exact minute 
accuracy of the Bible. "We are told in the 7th verse of 



MISCELLANEOUS. 401 

this chapter, " the heavens and the earth which are now 
by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire 
against the day of judgment and perdition of un- 
godly men." Literally translated, "stored with fire are 
reserved unto judgment." What a thought is that ! A 
core of fire in a crust of deposits composed of dead fos- 
sils, the remains of extinguished and buried dynasties 
constitutes the strong earth on which we tread. 

The flood annihilated nothing ; it changed, it 
desolated, it deteriorated, but it destroyed, or an- 
nihilated nothing. What is the law that every scien- 
tific man knows ? Fire destroys nothing ; it makes 
matter enter into new combinations. It was found 
in that great conflagration which seemed to be per- 
mitted just to teach us what a precarious tenure after 
all is our wealth, our greatness, our property, that the 
fire took the iron, the stone, the metal, the silver, every- 
thing that was there, and threw them into new com- 
binations, but it annihilated nothing. So I believe 
the last baptismal fire that shall wrap this earth in its 
flame shroud, will destroy nothing but sin, imperfection, 
decay, and that everything that God has made, every- 
thing that Christ has redeemed shall emerge frem that 
baptism more beautiful, more glorious, and more radiant 
than before. 

This last fire may change the structure of things. 
That fire invariably does. The most precious manu- 
scripts have perished in the flames — paintings, each of 
which would be an estate, have perished in the flames — 
sculptures, the admiration of ages, have been calcined in 
the flames — and as we saw warehouses where two millions 
and-a-half of property were stored, have been reduced to 
ashes, and rendered utterly and for ever worthless — a 
rehearsal on a small scale of what will one day be 
universal. This is not my statement, I am but the echo 



402 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

of the voice of Peter. We had a faint foreshadow of 
that last great conflagration, when we saw the Thames 
glow as if it were molten brass — when the flames seemed 
in their awful and mad ecstacy as if they were living 
things, and rose and laughed at the mightiest efforts of 
the mightiest master who had ever laid his hand on 
them and made them still, and triumphed over all his 
efforts to oppose their fury, and to save the property — 
and the property would be nothing but for the life that 
accompanied it — until all perished in the flames. But 
what will this be — what will these burning warehouses 
be — what will be the burning of the Parliament Houses 
— of the Eoyal Exchange — of our next door neighbor, 
Covent Garden Theatre — what will all combined be 
when compared with this world's last fire ! when this 
earth shall be in a white heat, with a blazing atmos- 
phere, with melting rocks, with dissolving metals, and 
with detonations, such as have never yet been heard, a 
picture of terrific grandeur, such as we have never yet 
seen ? 

But let me now take the bright side of the picture. 
The last fire that burns our orb, and sets fire to our 
atmosphere, cannot, dare not, may not touch the 
humblest Christian's immortal soul. The humblest 
Christian is safe there. The flame dare not enter the 
sacred chancel where the soul is. It can laugh at the 
drawn dagger. It can defy the spear point also. It 
triumphs over all that dares or attempts to assail it : — 

"The stars shall fade away, the sun himself 
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years : 
But it shall flourish iu eternal youth 
Unhurt amidst the war of elements, 
The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds 1" 

It cannot be annihilated. The poorest Christian in this 



MISCELLANEOUS. 403 

assembly has a soul that is fire-proof, and flood-proof, 
and death-proof, because it has been sprinkled with the 
precious blood, and clothed with the glorious righteous- 
ness of the Son of God ! 

And in the next place, the last fire will not even 
destroy a Christian's body. It may be crushed by the 
falling of the walls of a broken up world, it may, as 
many a brave soldier's has been, be torn into pieces and 
buried beneath the green sods of the Crimea, or under 
the burning sands of India — and many families in this 
country, and not a few in this congregation, have links 
that knit them to the burning sands of India — but not 
one atom of that body will ever perish. You say, how 
can what has been burned in the fire, what has been 
torn in pieces, or lost in the sea, be discovered ? I 
answer, if a chemist, when a person has been poisoned, 
can follow and hunt that poison into every retreat into 
which it can go, and can produce it before a Judge and 
Jury, will not the great Chemist of the universe be able 
to trace out every stray atom of every disintegrated 
frame, and he who said, "let there be light, and there 
was light," has only to say, "let Abney Park Cemetery 
restore the crushed dead" we laid in it, amid the 
sympathies of hundreds of thousands yesterday, and 
every atom of that dust will be restored, and the grave 
shall open, that face shall be seen again, that voice will 
be heard again, that noble and manly form shall be 
visible again, and then shall be said, " death, where is 
thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ?" 

That last baptismal fire will not destroy one good 
deed you have done for Christ's sake. People are so fond 
in the present clay of building beautiful churches — and 
there is nothing so beautiful — but I believe if we had 
more common sense we should think less of building 
beautiful churches and more of collecting living stones 



404 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

to build a living church, whose foundation is the Rock 
of Ages. A cup of cold water that you have given to a 
poor thirsty widow — a visit you have paid to a mourner, 
sitting under the shadow of death — the sympathy you 
have expressed — the help you have given to a poor rag- 
ged boy or girl, to educate, to cheer, to help them on 
the rough, hard way of life — these shall survive the last 
fire, and they shall be mentioned at that day, when the 
very words shall be music indeed — " inasmuch as ye did 
it unto the least of these my little ones, ye did it unto 
me." 

My dear friends, these are your noblest glory. Let 
your ornaments not be the beautiful things of this world, 
but those imperishable things which the fire cannot con- 
sume, which death cannot destroy, which will be repro- 
duced at the great white throne, not as merits — God 
forbid — not as your claims — " Blessed are the dead that 
die in the Lord." Their happiness is because " they die 
in the Lord," then it is added, not that their works go 
before them, but their works do follow them. 

And my dear friends, let me here say where death 
finds us is of very little consequence, or at what time we 
die, is of very little consequence, if we live and die in 
Christ. That's the main thing. I don't believe there's 
the least accident in anything that befalls us. I don't 
believe in chance at all. "I believe in God the Father 
Almighty, maker of heaven and earth." You've often 
heard me say, when trying to comfort those who had 
relatives in the far-distant fields of battle, that " every 
bullet has its billet," and when that calamity occurred 
the other day, that swept away perhaps one of the most 
useful members of this Church, there was no chance 
there. The scythe was peculiar, but the wheat was ripe 
for the master's garner. He who has gone, I am sure 
was ripe. In our committees connecteiN'ith our schools, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 405 

ragged schools, day schools, Sunday schools, his pres- 
ence was welcomed by all his brethren, and his com- 
bination of good sense, of true piety, of thorough 
efficiency were such that I fear we shall not soon see his 
like again. But what is lost to the Church below we 
rejoice to say has gone to the Church above, and instead 
of speaking and speculating about the past, and what 
cannot be recalled, let us draw the inference — " What 
manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversa- 
tion and godliness." 

The ranks of our congregation have been thinned by 
translations to the skies. Fill up the ranks. Many sol- 
diers are now listening to me. You know that when a 
comrade falls the rest must close up, and those to whom 
the battle is bequeathed must act with the greater energy. 
We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. You 
will not think me superstitious when I say that the spirit 
of our departed brother may be the spectator of those 
that are left behind, and if so, if one wave of bliss can 
rise from so poor a place to so rich a heritage — it will be 
to hear that you have taken up with greater zeal and 
greater energy the good work in which our brethren, who 
have gone before, have been so usefully employed. I 
have read in the stories of my country — and I for one 
hope its ancient traditions will never be forgotten — that 
one day, in a great battle, the chief of one of the pow- 
erful clans of the Highlands, fell back, aud lay on his 
side. The blood ebbed from him, and his clansmen 
thought he was killed, and they began to fall back dis- 
heartened — and you know that, be it a regiment or a fire 
brigade, let the chief fall, how faint are all hearts, how 
feeble are all arms — raising himself, with the blood ebb- 
ing from him, upon his elbow on the green turf where 
he had fallen, as his countrymen always fall, with his 
back to the field and his feet to the foe, he said, "Mac- 



406 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

donald, I'm not dead, but Fin watching how my children 
fight." My dear friends, the great captain of the brigade 
is not dead, but is watching us, his children, and seeing 
how they walk worthy of those "who by faith have 
inherited the promises." 



A FISHERMAN. 

READY ? OR NOT READY ? 
REY. ALBERT BIBBY. 

PREACHED AT A SEAPORT TOWN, ON OCCASION OF THE FUNERAL OF A FISHER- 
MAN WHO HAD BEEN DROWNED, AND BEFORE MANY OF THE SAME CRAFT. 

" Be ye therefore ready also : for the Son of Man cometh at an hour 
when ye think not." — Luke xii : 40. 

r f^HESE words occur at the end of a very solemn sermon 
preached by the Lord Jesus Christ to a numerous con- 
gregation ; for we read — " There were gathered together 
an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they 
trode one upon another." If you read the chapter care- 
fully, you will be able to trace the various links in the 
chain of thought. 

These words demand from us more than ordinary at- 
tention. God speaks to men in two ways, through the 
Holy Scriptures and by his dealings with men. When 
a friend or relative dies, we feel it is the voice of God 
calling to us to prepare to meet Him. And has not God 
been speaking to us, my brethren ? Only eight days ago 
a respectable fisherman, well known to most of you, left 
his wife and three children at home and went forth in his 
little boat to gather from the deep those treasures which 
it had often yielded to his industry, and which afforded 
him his daily bread. The day passed swiftly on, and the 
little boat and its owner came not at the usual hour of 



MIS GELLANEO US. 407 

returning. Sad fears began to chill the hearts of that mo- 
ther and her little ones. The dieary hours dragged slowly 
on, and fears grew into anguish and distraction, only to 
be succeeded by the heart-rending certainty, that the 
wife had become a widow : for her little ones were 
fatherless. We are told to ' ' weep with them that weep ;" 
and there should be no heart among us that does not 
sympathize with the afflicted family. It is not, however, 
a solitary case. Within the last twelve months three 
times has such an event happened ; three times it has 
been whispered in our streets, "A man is drowned f three 
times the report has proved a fact ; three times has 
death visited us in this unusual way. Death has not 
stopped only at the lowly cottages of the poor. I ask 
you solemnly to consider these dealings of the Lord with 
ourselves as inhabitants of this parish, and then say if 
you do not feel God is speaking to us, te each of us, to 
young, to old, to rich and poor ? If there is one class 
amongst us to which God speaks more particularly, it is 
to the fishermen and sailors. Does not God seem to say 
to us — " Behold, three I have taken away from you ; be 
ye therefore ready also ; for the Son of Man cometh at 
an hoar when ye think not ? " 

I. The lesson is, that Jesus Christ will come again. 
We are taught this in those words — "For the Son of 
Man cometh." 

When, however, Christ next comes, it will be in His 
glorious majesty. Nor will he come for the same pur- 
pose as at the first. Then He came to procure salvation ; 
when He next appears, it will be to inquire who amongst 
men have sought His salvation and accepted His offers, 
and to pronounce sentence accordingly. When Christ 
came the first time, only a few saw His real dignity and 
character ; when he comes the second time, His glorious 
majesty and power will force themselves on the atten- 



408 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

tion of all. There will be a little flock who love his 
appearing. But what frightful consternation will 
there be among those who cared not to be found ready! 
What terror, dismay and anguish will seize them as they 
behold the Son of Man coming ! Thus is that awful 
moment described in God's Word — " And the kings of 
the earth, &c." (Revelation vi: 15-17.) In that day 
every secret shall be made known, every hidden deed 
brought to light. 

II. Christ will come when we do not expect him. ' ' For 
the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye thirik not." 

In the scripture the coming of the Son of Man is 
compared to a flash of lightning, or the coming of a thief 
in the night. In this way we are taught its suddenness. 
It will find the world generally unprepared ; for thus it 
is declared concerning that day in the Holy Scripture — 
"And as it was in the days of Noe," &c. — (Luke xvii : 
26-30.) As the flood came when men though not, so 
will " the Son of Man come at an hour when ye think 
not." 

Do not such instances as those I have alluded to sol- 
emnly tell each of us we " know not at what hour the 
Son of Man cometh ?" This last case was that of a young 
man not yet thirty years of age. In the morning he 
left his house and family, probably with no more serious 
thought of not seeing them again than any of you had 
on coming here; before the night closed in, the cold 
waves were rolling over his lifeless body. 

III. We now proceed to notice, thirdly, the necessity 
of being prepared to meet our God when He cometh. In 
the language of the text it is thus expressed — " Be ye 
therefore ready." 

It is the same as saying, " Because you must stand 
before the judgment-seat, and may be called to do so at 
any hour of any day, take care and be prepared. Be ready 



MISCELLANEOUS. 409 

to meet God every day." Remember, too, that these are 
the words of Christ. 

And this will lead us to inquire, What is meant by- 
being ready for the coming of the Son of Man ? In other 
words our inquiry is, Who is prepared to die ? 

First, Are you forgiven? 

All men need forgiveness, because all men are sinners. 
Sinners we are born, and sinners we have been all our lives. 
There is not a commandment which we have not broken. 

2. Are you holy ? 

Scripture says, " Without holiness no man can see 
the Lord." To be holy is to have a mind like God — 
that is, to love what He loves, and to hate what He hates. 
A holy man will endeavor to shun every known sin, and 
to keep every known commandment. He will feel just 
what Paul felt when he said, "I delight in the law of 
God, after the inward man." By means of prayer made 
in the name of Christ, and efforts made in reliance upon 
the grace of Christ, the Christian will be able to over- 
come the solicitations to sin which surround him on 
every side, and lurk in every corner of his heart. 

Fishermen ! for many hours almost every day you 
are separated from a watery grave only by a few inches 
of board : do you ever think, that without holiness you 
cannot see the Lord ? Of some few of you there is a 
hope that you do ; but of a very large number there is, 
at present, no hope at all. Do not say this is unchari- 
table ; God says, " By their fruits ye shall know them •" 
and by swearing, by drunkenness, by lascivious conduct 
and conversation, by bickering and dishonest dealing, by 
the neglect of the Sabbath, by idleness and disregard of 
your families, too many declare, as plainly as if they said 
it in so many words, that they are the servants of the 
devil, and not of God. And some who are more decent 

in their conduct at home, leave all their care of the Sab- 
18 



410 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

bath behind them, when they go to fish elsewhere. In 
a few weeks you will again be leaving, and exposed to the 
same temptation. Let me intreat you wherever you 
may be, to leave your nets on the Sunday and follow 
Christ by worshipping Him in His house. 



A MEEE PKOFESSOR. 

LESSONS FROM THE LIFE AND END OF JUDAS ISCAEIOT. 

REV. WILLIAM S. PLUMER, D.D., LL.D. 

"It had been good for that man if he had not been born.''' — 
Matthew xxvi : 24. 

OUCH is the alarming and astounding language of the 
^ Lord Jesus Christ respecting one of his disciples 
and apostles. The Messiah needed not that any should 
testify to him of man ; for he knew what was in man. 
He searches the hearts and reins. He declares the end 
from the beginning. " Jesus knew from the beginning 
who they were that believe not, and who should betray 
him." Christ's ministers are often deceived ; Christ, 
never. He knows all things. He never was overreached. 
His eyes are as flaming fire. He easily detects the most 
specious pretenses. He knows all men, all hearts, all 
destinies. 

The person here spoken of is Judas, whose surname 
is Iscariot. Let us consider the life and end of him of 
whom the words of the text were spoken. 

1. There is no evidence that Judas Iscariot was a 
man of bad countenance. Most men are much influenced 
by looks, and many think they can tell a man's character 
by the physiognomy. This may often be true ; but 
there are many exceptions. 

2. There is no evidence that, up to his betrayal of his 
Lord, his conduct was the subject of censure, complaint, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 411 

jealousy, or of the slightest suspicion. Until the night 
when he committed the traitorous deed, his reputation 
seems to have been fair, and without the shadow^ of a 
blenikh. He was not ambitious, as James and John on 
one occasion were. He was free from the characteristic 
rashness of Peter. His sins were all concealed from the 
eyes of mortals. He was a thief ; but that was known 
only to Omniscience. 

3. There is no evidence that, during his continuance 
with Christ, he regarded himself as a hypocrite. Doubt- 
less he thought himself honest. He knew no other kind 
of sincerity than that which he possessed. He may have 
had solemn and joyful feelings under the preaching 
of Christ. He may have had very awful and tender 
thoughts when he himself was preaching. Such is man's 
self-ignorance, that it is probable not one in ten thou- 
sand, who are hypocrites, firmly believe that such is their 
character. N~ay, it commonly happens, that the worse 
men are, the better they think themselves to be. 

The first mention made of this man is entirely cred- 
itable to him. He is introduced to us as one of the 
twelve, whom Christ chose as disciples and confidential 
friends, to be with him and hear his instructions, both pub- 
lic and private. We are not told that Christ ever availed 
himself on the absence of Judas to make any communi- 
cations to the eleven, until the night of his betrayal. 

The Lord ordained him with the other eleven to the 
office and work of an apostle. Since the birth of Christ 
this is the highest office to which any mortal could at- 
tain. The gifts requisite for the performance of its 
duties were extraordinary and miracukms. They belong 
to no man now living. The proofs of an apostle were 
in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. . . 

The next account we have of Judas respects his ap- 
parent regard for the poor. When the affectionate Mary 



412 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

anointed the feet of the blessed Jesus, Judas was there. 
Being treasurer of Christ's family, and acting without 
auditors, he had dishonestly used some of the funds for 
his own private purposes. Hence he is called "a thief." 

When Judas went to the chief priest, he probably 
expected to obtain several thousand pieces of silver, and 
thought thus to make his fortune. Possibly he intended 
to get his money, fulfill his bargain, and put his Master 
into their hands; but expected Christ immediately to 
deliver himself out of their power. Thus the traitor 
would have become a swindler. 

The bargain being made, the difficulty with Judas 
now was to fulfill his part of it. " And from that time 
he sought opportunity to betray him." Wickedness is 
troublesome. Probably Judas gave frequent assurances 
of fidelity in his covenant with the Jews, and would have 
pretended to be grossly insulted if any had charged him 
with a design of fraud. Sin fearfully blinds the mind, 
and hardens the heart. The devil seems now to have 
had full possession of Judas. He took no time, he had 
no heart for reflection. He may have kept up some form 
of prayer, but there was no sincerity in him or his devo- 
tions. . . . 

The aggravations of the sin of betraying Christ were 
many and great. The traitor was eminent in place, in 
gifts, in office, in professsion ; a guide to others, and one 
whose example was likely to influence many, and if evil, 
to give great occasion to the enemy to speak reproach- 
fully. His sin had for its object the Lord Jesus Christ. 
It was an attack on God himself. 

This subject is full of instruction, and teaches many 
salutary lessons. Let us not so far separate ourselves 
from Judas as to suppose that we are naturally better 
than he, or that if left to ourselves we will not prove 
that we are ready for any deed of wickedness. A monster 



MISCELLANEOUS. 413 

of depravity was he. But all sin is horrible. And God 
would have us learn wisdom from the fall of the worst 
men in the world. Thus we may profit by the overthrow 
of the most infamous. 

From the history of Judas we learn, that when a 
man is once fairly started in a career of wickedness, it is 
impossible to tell where he will stop. God's grace may 
arrest one in the maddest career, as it did Saul of Tarsus. 
But left to himself, man will dig into hell. The good 
providence of God mercifully restrains even the wicked, 
else existence on earth would not be desirable. Scenes 
of violence and blood, deeds of outrage and atrocity, 
words of hatred and blasphemy, and looks of fierceness 
and terror would appall us every hour, but that God lays 
his almighty hand upon the hearts of men and com- 
mands them to be still. Unrestrained, every heart would 
show its possessor a monster of wickedness. Passions, 
which now lie smothered, would, if let loose, rage and 
sweep everything before them. Natural affection, the 
voice of conscience, public opinion, regard to reputation, 
and fear of the law, are hapily employed by providence 
to hold men back. 

All men should especially beware of covetousness. 
" The love of money is the root of all evil : which while 
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and 
pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (1 
Tim. vi : 10.) Of the truth of this teaching Judas was 
a fearful witness. No tongue, no pen can describe the 
sorrows which rolled over his soul. When men are 
eagerly heaping up riches, they are doing work for bitter 
repentance in this world, or in that which is to come. 
Even on earth "the covetous man heaps up riches, not 
to enjoy them, but to have them ; and starves himself in 
the midst of plenty ; and most unnaturally cheats and 
robs himself of that which is his own ; and makes a hard 



414 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

shift to be as poor and miserable with a great estate as 
any man can be without it." 

Oh ! that men would hear the warning words of 
Richard Baxter : " Use sin as it will use you ; spare it 
not, for it will not spare you ; it is your murderer and 
the murderer of the world. Use it, therefore, as a 
murderer should be used. Kill it before it kills you ; 
and though it kill your bodies, it shall not be able to 
kill your souls." 

Nor should we forget that character may as well be 
learned from small as from great things. Judas' petty 
larceny was as good an index to his character as his 
treason. A straw will show which way the wind blows. 
Human character is not made up of a few great acts, but 
of a multitude of little things. Every-day conduct 
shows the man. Great events, in which we are actors, 
will fully expose us, if in small affairs we are unable to 
act well. "He that contemneth small things shall fall by 
little and little." (Eccles. xix : 1.) The failure of our 
virtue on great occasions is but an announcement to the 
world that we have been habitually coming short in our 
more private behavior. Little rills form the greatest 
rivers. The ocean itself is made up of drops of rain or par- 
ticles of mist. A man is what his habits make him. He 
who can not resist a slight temptation will never gain 
the mastery over a grievous one. 

It is also manifest that bad men may for a long time 
appear well. To do so may cost them trouble, but may 
still be practicable. Through life they may have such a 
fear of exposure, and be so studious of appearances, as 
to deceive all around them. Even suspicion may not 
soil their fair name, and yet they may be in the gall of 
btiterness. Eschewing the devices of the debauched, 
they may practice the sins of devils. It is true that this 
class of transgressors have a hard task. They are always 



MISCELLANEOUS. 415 

like one who has a rent in his garment, which he finds 
difficult to conceal. A life of deception is full of hard- 
ship and uncertainty ; and at its close, when amendment 
is impossible, the truth comes out, and in a moment 
damnation flashes in the face, and the poor soul enters 
on an existence full of misery. When God tears away 
the mask, disguise is no longer possible. * * * 

How small a temptation to sin will at last prevail 
over a vicious mind. For less than twenty dollars, Judas 
sold his Lord and Master. Those temptations commonly 
esteemed great are not the most sure to prevail. The 
ribaldry of the Philistines did not move Samson from 
his fidelity, but the blandishments of Delilah overcame 
him. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. 
Many a man consents to lose a friend for his wit, yea, to 
lose his soul for a quibble. Men may sin until the mere 
force of habit, without any apparent inducement, seems 
sufficient to impel them to great enormities. 

Nothing prepares a man faster for destruction than 
hypocrisy or formality in actions of a religious nature. 
The three years which Judas spent in the family of our 
Lord probably exceeded all the rest of his life in ripen- 
ing him for destruction. So many, so solemn, so impres- 
sive truths were presented to his mind, that he must 
have become very rapidly hardened. 

It is a small matter to be judged of man's judgment. 
The judgment of God, it shall stand ; it is righteous, it 
is always according to truth. Man judges of the heart 
by appearances. God judges of appearances by the heart, 
and he judges of the heart by itself. The tribunal, from 
which there lies no appeal, will reverse a vast number of 
decisions made by the tribunals of earth. Public opinion 
often errs. Individual judgments are as often erroneous. 
If men condemn and God approves, all is well. But if 



416 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

men acquit and God condemns, all is lost. He that 
judgeth us is the Lord. 

We should never forget that official character is one 
thing, and moral character another thing. All official 
characters may be sustained without any real grace in 
the heart. Balaam's prophecies were as true and as sub- 
lime as those of Moses or Isaiah. So far as we know, 
Judas' performance of the duties of the apostolic mission 
was as acceptable and as useful as that of the majority 
of his brethren. Even success in preaching is not proof 
of piety. It is the message, not the messenger ; the 
truth preached, and not the man who utters it, that con- 
verts the soul. Piety is of infinite importance to every 
soul of man ; but a man who has no piety may yet do 
good. 

The history of Judas shows us how man will cling to 
false hopes. Hypocrites hold fast their delusive expec- 
tations with the utmost tenacity. There is no evidence 
that during years of hypocrisy Judas ever seriously 
doubted his own piety. There were many sure marks, 
indeed, against him ; but what cares any hypocrite for 
evidence ? His own blind confidence is to him more 
powerful than all the truths of God's word. Because he 
is determined to believe his state good, nothing will con- 
vince him to the contrary. 

If men thus self-confident forsake their profession, 
and openly apostatize, we need not be surprised. " It is 
impossible but that offences will come." (Luke xvii : 
1.) " There must also be heresies among you, that they 
which are approved may be made manifest among you." 
(1 Cor. xi : 19.) Open defections from truth and right- 
eousness are no strange things. It has been so from the 
beginning. Jesus had his Judas. Peter must deal with 
Ananias, Sapphira, and Simon Magus. Paul was in 
perils among false brethren, and Demas quite forsook 



MISCELLANEOUS. 417 

him. We must expect those that are not of us to go out 
from us. If they were of us, they would no doubt con- 
tinue with us. The wicked will do wickedly, though for 
a while they may seem to be righteous. 

The case of Judas gives us the rule of admission to 
church-membership, and, so far as moral character is 
concerned, to church offices. We may require a credible 
profession of piety. Infallible evidence of love to Christ 
is not attainable. A profession of piety, accompanied by 
such evidence as a consistent life affords, is as much as 
we may demand. Our Savious knew Judas from the 
beginning to be a bad man, " a devil ;" but his omni- 
science, not the overt acts of Judas, taught him thus, 
and so he received him into the church, leaving us an 
example that we should follow his steps. Our Lord 
judged of the members of his church, not by what he 
as God knew of their hearts, but by their credible pro- 
fession. The Master never did evil that good might 
come. He practiced on the true rule. Let us seek no 
other. However painful our fears respecting the real 
characters of men, we must respect a profession of piety, 
not contradicted by the life. 

Thus, too, we have a full refutation of the objection 
made to a connection with the visible church, because 
there are wicked men in her communion. The apostles 
certainly knew that among them was one bad man ; but 
they did not therefore renounce their portion among 
Christ's confessed friends. And Christ himself held in- 
tercourse with Judas just as if he were all he professed 
to be. So that if one certainly knew another to be an 
enemy of God, and yet could not prove it to the satis- 
faction of impartial church authorities, this should not 
debar him from the Lord's table. If dogs will some- 
times get the children's bread, that is no reason why a 
table should not be spread for the children. 



418 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

How difficult it is to bring home truth to the deceit- 
ful heart of man. Nor could one do a wiser thing than 
to inquire whether he has better evidence of piety than 
the great traitor had during his apostleship. Judas 
could heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out devils. 
He was first a disciple, and then an apostle of our Lord. 
He often heard Christ preach. He held the only office 
of trust among the apostles. His reputation for piety 
stood as fair as any man's. His persuasion of his good 
state seems to have been so firm, that he hardly felt in- 
clined to look into the grounds of his hopes. He was 
not a drunkard, nor a swearer. He was not a captious 
hearer of the Gospel. Without a murmur he bore all 
the fatigue of his apostolic mission. He was not an en- 
vious man beyond others. He was not a slanderer, a 
reviler, a backbiter, a whisperer. He displayed no in- 
ordinate ambition. He was not a brawler, nor a violent 
and outrageous man. And yet he was not a child of 
God. Mere negative goodness, mere freedom from open 
vice, proves no man an heir of glory. It is true there 
was sufficient evidence against Judas, but he willingly 
overlooked that. If many men had as good evidence 
against their enemies or their neighbors, as they have 
against themselves, they would speedily pronounce them 
hypocrites. 

In the case of Judas we have also a fearful example 
of the terrible judgment of God against the wicked. As 
he loved cursing, so it came unto him ; as he delighted 
not in blessing, so it was far from him. As he clothed 
himself with cursing like as with his garment, so it came 
into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. 
God's judgments are still abroad in the earth. Of all 
judgments, those which are spiritual should most alarm 
us. To have eyes and not see, to have ears and not hear, 
to have hearts and not understand, to hold the truth in 



MISCELLANEOUS. 419 

unrighteousness, to be forsaken of God,, to be given over 
to believe a lie — these are among the direst curses that 
fall on men in this world ; and they are sure forerunners 
of God's sorest plagues in the world, to come. And how 
fearful must it be to fall into the hands of the living 
God, when on earth a drop of wrath will make men 
choose hanging rather than life. And how dismal must 
be the prospects of all who die in their sins, when they 
shall have for their companions Judas and all evil-mind- 
ed men, the devil and his angels. The society of the 
damned is good ground of earnestness in fleeing from 
the wrath to come. 

All temporal suffering can be gauged. But who can 
fathom the sea of love, the ocean of bliss, made sure to 
all believers ? And eternal misery is as dreadful as eter- 
nal glory is desirable. Oh ! how fearful must be the 
doom of the incorrigibly wicked, when in their case 
existence itself ceases to be desirable, or even tolerable ! 
It is true of every one who dies without repentance 
toward God, and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, that it 

HAD BEES' GOOD POR THAT MAS IF HE HAD SOT BEES 
BOBS. 



THE SCEPTIC ; 

OB, HAPPISESS APART PROM THE HOPE OP RESURRECTION. 

PARIS EXHIBITIOS- SERMOS. 

REV. JAMES MURRAY, M. A. 

IN THE CHURCH OF THE ORATOIRE, RUE ST. HOXORE, PARIS. 

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most 
miserable." — 1 Con. xv : 19. 

TT was the intention of the Apostle, to establish in the 

minds of Christian converts at Corinth, the truth of 

the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. A greater or 



420 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

more important doctrine could not be submitted for their 
consideration or for ours, as it is the groundwork and 
foundation of our holy religion. Without this the suffer- 
ings and death of Christ, undergone for sinful men 
would be in vain, and the system of instruction which 
he came to deliver, would be better in degree only, than 
that of any wise teacher of the ancient world. Without 
this, our hopes and expectations must have been confined 
within the narrow sphere of our present earthly state. . . 

The whole chapter deserves the most serious and at- 
tentive consideration. In it you will see the certainty 
of a future resurrection enforced by the closest reason- 
ing, and in plain, yet eloquent language, such as must 
have produced a powerful impression on those to whom 
it was addressed. Among the errors which appear to 
have crept into the Corinthian church, and against which 
this great teacher had to watch and to warn, was that 
derived from the Sadducees, who denied the doctrine of a 
resurrection. Some of the early professing Christians at 
Corinth had probably belonged to the sect of the Sad- 
ducees, and had insinuated some of the poison into the 
Corinthian church. . . . 

This doctrine of Sadducees, which represents all who 
sleep in the grave as utterly and for ever dead, holds 
out a cheerless and melancholy prospect to all, but espe- 
cially to us, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, for if 
in this life only we had hope in him — if we could not 
look beyond this vale of tears to a brighter and more 
animating scene, then we who are exposed to so many 
and great calamities for his name's sake, were of all men 
most to be pitied ; amidst such evils as we are summoned 
to endure, nothing could support and comfort us except 
the blessed hope of everlasting life which God hath given 
us in his Son Jesus Christ. 

We must be strictly careful lest our outward security 



MISCELLANEOUS. 421 

in religion should lull us into disregard and forgetf ulness 
of that inward and spiritual part which constitutes the 
very life of religion, or lest, while we admire the happy 
and beneficial effect produced by Christianity on nations 
and individuals, we should lose sight of that to which 
precept points, and which is the end of practice, the 
blessed hope of everlasting life. To show the necessity 
of the same principle extending to daily life, and shed- 
ding its gracious influence upon the scenes through 
which we are passing, it will be found that the very bless- 
ings and comforts of which our state is susceptible must, 
in order to be genuine, have this mark upon them, indi 
eating futurity ; and experience will abundantly prove 
that amidst the reverses of life, in deep and lowly pov- 
verty, in sickness and bereavement, there must be some 
better remedy proposed than the skill of this world can 
suggest, some more lively hope than present restoration 
from pain and sorrow, and from the bitterness of desola- 
tion. Constituted as we are, there must be within us for 
our happiness, that hope in Christ hereafter, which will 
not only regulate and adjust our joys and difficulties, 
and prepare the soul for better and permanent things, 
but will act with good results upon our behavior and 
conversation, while in this world we are partakers of 
God's gifts and the subjects of his afflictive dispensa- 
tions ; for viewed independently of this hope, what is 
man with regard to his joys and to his sorrows ? His 
enjoyments are transient and unsatisfying. There are 
few without a certain alloy of a trouble and anxiety, 
and many are quickly followed by sorrow and regret. 

In contemplating the enjoyments and pursuits of man- 
kind in general, we must acknowledge, that the situa- 
tion and circumstances of the poor naturally deprive them 
of many of this life's satisfactions, and their present en- 
joyment will be found to lie in but a narrow compass. If, 



422 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

then, they are living without God in the world, if they 
bestow no settled thoughts on their eternal state, if 
in this life only they have hope in Christ, their state is 
deplorable indeed ; but if they rely with humble trust 
on their crucified and risen Saviour, — if they respect the 
Sabbath and are constant in prayer, setting a good exam- 
ple to their neighbors — if, in proportion to their acknow- 
ledged want of wordly joys below, they look forward 
with a sure and ardent hope to a state in which they 
shall receive the promised reward, then "blessed are the 
poor, for they shall be blessed in the day of the Lord." 

Yet there are enjoyments and satisfactions of this life 
which all can experience and understand, namely, those 
which spring from social and domestic happiness. Of 
all the cordials which heaven in mercy has poured into 
the cup of life to cheer us on our pilgrimage here, few 
are so sweet and refreshing as these. To look upon those 
who are indeed our friends, who compose the circle of a 
peaceful home, imparts the liveliest feelings of joy. But 
here the Christian hope must have its play. Without 
this, the bond of affection must soon be broken, and all 
enjoyment derived from it be but as a shadow. It is 
this which will pervade with its soothing influence our 
thoughts and conduct.; will consecrate each mutual 
office of paternal kindness and filial respect ; will, with 
God's grace, check the angry passion ere it rises from the 
heart to the lips ; and will point to a state of perfect 
and unalloyed bliss beyond the grave. * * * 

I am not going to dwell on the advantages of wealth 
and talent, because the possessors of these gifts, when 
unblessed with higher hopes, have been like beacons to 
warn us from the rocks of offence, rather than the sub- 
jects of envy or admiration. Nor need I, when turning 
to the reverse of the page of man's life, and to the trou- 
ble which every one labors under, in a greater or less de- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 423 

gree, enlarge upon a field familiar to us all. The sketch 
must be imperfect, but it will avail for my argument. 
How many diseases are there, some lingering and others 
sudden and acute, which are sufficient, without this hope 
in Christ, to make life a weary burden. Reckon the 
difficulties which many have to encounter in seeking just 
and honest ends, the cares necessary for arriving at some 
point of desired success, and, in certain instances, even 
for securing a hard-earned competency ; in one case the 
threatening form of poverty coming after better days, and 
approaching as an armed man ; the growing infirmities of 
age ; the ill conduct, or the losses, or the distresses of 
those who are dear to us ; — any one of these would have 
its weight in depressing the soul, and much more so, if 
they shall be found to follow up one another in sad and 
swift succession. On such a survey, how is it possible 
to pronounce man's state on earth a happy state, unless 
at the same time we view him as inly conscious of that 
within him which was not born to die ; as endued with 
some secret support, which can give strength and cheer- 
fulness to his spirit, and qualify him to go through more 
than human strength or human reason could do of them- 
selves ; as possessed, in short, of that hope on which he 
can always confidently lean, which encourages him to 
look upward as the waters of affliction roll over his head, 
and to exclaim at the approach of his last hour, " death, 
where is thy sting ? grave, where is thy victory ? 
Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our 
Lord Jesus Christ/' 



Our home in heaven ! Oh, the glorious home, 
And the spirit joined with the bride, says, ' Come.' 
Come, seek His face, and your sins forgiven, 
And rejoice in hope of your home in heaven." 



424 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



A BLASPHEMER. 

LESSONS FROM THE DEATH OF If ABOTH. 
REV. HUGH HUGHES, D.D., ENGLAND. 

" And there came in two men, children of Belial, and sat before him : 
and the men of Belial witnessed against him, even against 
Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth did blas- 
pheme God and the king. Then they carried him forth out of 
the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died." — 1 Kings 
xxi : 13. 

T^HE scene recorded in these words exhibits one of the 
most lamentable and cruel deaths on record. It oc- 
curred about seven years after the destruction of the 
discomfited priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. The 
signal punishment of the wicked on that occasion ought 
to have converted Ahab from his evil ways, and brought 
him to " repentance not to be repented of." The signal 
deliverance of the kingdom from famine, which followed, 
ought to have knit his heart for ever to Him who 
delighteth in mercy and goodness. And he appears to 
have been for the time convinced and softened by the 
indisputable testimony of what he had seen and heard 
and felt. But the impression soon wore off under the 
bad influence of his irreclaimable queen Jezebel. He 
relapsed into idolatry, and became again the sport of all 
the evil passions to which our evil nature unchecked by 
true religion is prone. 

The evil passion which now worked in the heart of 
Ahab was covetousness. There lived at Jezreel a right- 
eous man of the name of Naboth, whose vineyard bordered 
on the grounds belonging to the royal palace. Ahab, 
not content with his already ample domains, in disregard 
of the tenth commandment, coveted that possession of 
his neighbor, and wished to annex it to his own property. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 425 

It appears that he was not so unjust as to expect it 
without a price. He offered even to give a better vine- 
yard in exchange for it, or to pay its full value in money. 
But Naboth said unto Ahab, "The Lord forbid it me 
that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto 
thee/' 

Ahab, who had sinfully set his heart upon this prop- 
erty, was greatly chagrined and disappointed at Naboth's 
refusal. But displeased as he was, and despotic as he 
was, he durst not by force seize upon another's inherit- 
ance, as it would have been a flagrant breach of the con- 
stitution of the country, and perhaps, by creating a 
universal panic respecting the security of property, would 
have endangered the stability of his throne. Neither 
could he alter the law upon the point, the Israeli tish 
kings had no authority to alter, annul, or enact a single 
statute of the realm, the code of Moses being the alpha 
and omega of the national legislation. Under these cir- 
cumstances the evil passion of covetousness, and his 
inability to gratify it, caused him excessive annoyance, 
embittered all his enjoyments, and appears to have seriously 
affected his health. " He laid him down on his bed, and 
turned away his face, and would eat no bread/' What 
sources of misery are capricious appetites and ill-regu- 
lated desires ! Here is a man already lord of ten-twelfths 
of the country, the king of Israel, and the recent con- 
queror of Syria, made wretched because he could not 
obtain possession of a poor man's vineyard. What a proof 
of the vanity of worldly things, and their inability to 
" minister to a mind diseased !" . . . 

She adopted a most infamous scheme for the purpose 
— a scheme the more abominable in the sight of God and 
upright men from it combining with robbery and murder 
the odious vices of hypocrisy and. perjury. She wrote 
letters in Ahab's name to the elders and nobles of Jezreel, 



426 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

and commanded them to procure two men, sons of 
Belial, that is, two men who were unprincipled enough 
to take a false oath, and for a bribe to swear away the 
life of a fellow creature. She ordered that Naboth 
should be charged with treason and blasphemy, for 
which, according to the Mosaic law, the punishment was 
death by stoning. She ordered a fast to be proclaimed 
in the place, to intimate the deprecation of a great 
calamity impending over the nation for its toleration of 
such a crying evil as the existence of such a traitor and 
blasphemer within the city. . . . Justice and religion 
are themselves made the pretexts for perpetrating the 
most atrocious crimes. The very seat of justice is cor- 
rupted, and the very sanctuary of religion polluted. 
The handmaids of virtue become the abettors of vice, 
and the daughters of heaven are changed into ministers 
of hell, the angels of light into the emissaries of Satan. 
Under such circumstances the decay of moral and 
religious principles is rapid beyond calculation. Pro- 
fligacy, fear, treachery and sycophancy bear uncontrolled 
sway. It was precisely so on the present occasion. 
There was not among all the magistrates and counsellors 
of Jezreel so much of regard for righteousness and 
purity as in the single breast of the God-fearing jSTaboth. 
We do not hear that the innocent accused attempted a 
word of defence. Her charge against him was similar 
to that against a greater One, who was " led as a lamb 
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so He opened not His mouth." In the one case 
as in the other, the power of evil under the auspices of 
Jezebel was triumphant, as it triumphed at the instiga- 
tion of those who cried out, "Crucify Him, crucify 
Him I" And, like Jesus, Naboth was overwhelmed by 
the force of injustice and malignity, and consigned to 



MISCELLANEOUS. 42? 

execution. " They carried him forth out oi the city, 
and stoned him with stones, that he died." . . 

How short are the triumphs of the wicked ! and how 
vain the attempt to increase our enjoyments by crime ! 
In the very scene where Ahab expected an augmentation 
of happiness, there was presented to him the greatest 
source of mental disquietude and suffering. There 
Elijah told him from the Lord that ample vengeance 
would be taken upon him, his wife, and family, for the 
atrocity connected with that vineyard ; that he himself 
should die a violent death, and that the dogs should lick 
his blood as they had licked the blood of Naboth ; that 
Jezebel should die a violent death, and that the dogs 
should eat her up, so as to deprive her of the honor of a 
burial ; and that his whole family should be ex- 
tinguished, and no posterity left him in the land. Just 
retribution for extirpating Naboth and his house ! All 
this terrible judgment, though part of it was delayed on 
account of Ahab's humiliation under the reproof, so 
that it was not fulfilled in his lifetime, was ultimately 
brought to pass to the uttermost extent of its meaning. 
Ahab died in consequence of a wound received in battle ; 
and they washed his chariot and his armor in the pool 
of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood according 
to the word of the Lord. His son Ahazia, who suc- 
ceeded him on the throne, came to a premature end by 
an accident, which, by the judgment of God, proved 
fatal on account of his persisting in idolatry. His son 
Jehoram, the next in succession, fell by the hand of 
Jehu, and his bleeding body was cast into that very vine- 
yard which his father and mother had criminally taken 
from Naboth. How awful a fulfillment of the threat 
against the idolatrous and the wicked — " I will visit the 
sins of the fathers upon the children unto the third and 
fourth generation of them that hate Me \" 



428 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

But a far more common, and not less fatal, though 
not apparently so atrocious a working of avarice, is found 
in the common walks of life around us ; and I notice it 
as a disgrace to our country. I mean the oppression of 
the weak and innocent by the strong and unprincipled, 
through the medium of litigation, by the quibbling in- 
strumentality of legal forms. Many are they who give 
up their just rights for fear of the ruinous consequences 
of an expensive law-suit ; many are they who avail them- 
selves of the apprehensions of the timid to appropriate 
what is not their own. Some have thought it their duty 
to resist injustice, and have been ruined in the attempt 
by the force of superior wealth, and brought desolation 
on their families, and premature death on themselves. 

Let me conclude the subject with a word of admonition 
to the wordly-minded, and a word of consolation to the 
afflicted people of God. Ye worldly-minded men, see 
the end of worldly-mindedness in Ahab and his house. 
" How are the mighty fallen !" It has slain its thousands 
and tens of thousands. It will certainly slay, yea, ever- 
lastingly destroy thee, whosoever thou art who are led 
captivity by it; for "the wages of sin is death/' 
"Though hand join in hand the wicked shall not go un- 
punished " Methinks I hear you say, "The subject is 
too gloomy for the present. We have other concerns to 
attend to. At a future time we will consider the subject. 
Now, or ( to-morrow, we will go into such a city, and 
continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and get gain ;' 
( and to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more 
abundant.' " To-morrow ! When to-morrow comes, time 
may be with you no more ; when to-morrow comes, your 
fair form may be a ghastly corpse. Come, and take a turn 
with death. Behold him riding on his pale horse, to meet 
you in your mad career. Perhaps he is now about to 
seize the healthiest in the assembly. The passing bell, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 429 

which may have just tolled for a departed brother, may 
next be heard for you ; the feet of those who lately car- 
ried his remains to the silent grave, may next carry you 
thither. " How long, ye simple ones, will you love sim- 
plicity ?" How long will you resolve to enlarge your 
borders, to " pull down your barns and build greater," 
when ye know not but the Lord may blast all your ex- 
pectations with the withering sentence, " Thou fool ! 
this night thy soul shall be required of thee. - " Will 
nothing rouse you from carnal security ? " If a man 
live many years, and rejoice in them all, yet let him re- 
member the days *f darkness, for they shall be many." 
Though the sinner die a hundred years old yet shall he 
be accursed. Can you trifle here ? Is it a matter of in- 
difference whether you are happy or miserable ? Is it a 
matter of indifference whether you are saved or damned ? 
How will you endure "the voice of the archangel and 
the trump of God, saying. Arise, ye dead, and come to 
judgment ?" Will you not then in wild confusion cry 
to " the rocks and mountains to fall upon you, to hide 
you from the the face of Him that siteth upon the 
throne, and from the wrath of the lamb ? " But then 
that cry will be vain. 



And rocks but treasure up for wrath to come." 

May the Lord enable you to call upon Him by fervent 
prayer now that He is seated upon a throne of mercy, 
that so, when He is seated in judgment, you may stand 
before him with boldness among the happy heirs of a 
blessed immortality ! 



430 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



THE WICKED MAN'S LIFE, FUNERAL, AND 
EPITAPH. 

BEV. C. H. SPURGEON, LONDON". 
" And fto 1 saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from Hie 
place ofthelwly, and they were forgotten in the city where they 
had so done : this is also vanity." — Ecclesiastes viii : 10. 

TX/'E shall this morning want you, first of all, to ivalh 
with a living man; it is said of him that he did 
"come and go from the place of the holy:" next, I shall 
want you to attend his funeral ; and then, in conclusion 
I shall ask you to assist in writing Ms epitaph — "and 
they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: 
this also is vanity." 

I. In the first place, here is some good company 
for tou ; some with whom you may walk to the house 
of God, for it is said of them, that they did come and 
go from the place of the holy. By this I think we may 
understand the place where the righteous meet to wor- 
ship God. God's house may be called "the place of the 
holy." 

Shall we just take the wicked man's arm and walk 
with him to the house of God ? When he begins to go, 
if he be one who has neglected going in his childhood, 
which perhaps is not extremely likely, when he begins 
to go even in his childhood, or whenever you choose to 
mention, you will notice that he is not often affected, 
by the sound of the ministry. He goes up to the chapel 
with flippancy and mirth. He goeth to it as he would to 
a theater or any other place of amusement, as a means 
of passing away his Sabbath and killing time. Merrily 
he trippeth in there ; but I have seen the wicked man 
when he went away look far differently from what he 
did when he entered. His plumes had been trailed in 



MISCELLANEOUS. 431 

the dust. As he walks home there is no more flippancy 
and lightness, for he says, " Surely the Lord God has 
been in that place and I have been compelled to tremble. 
I went to scoff, but I am obliged, in coming away, to 
confess that there is a power in religion, and the ser- 
vices of God's house are not all dulness after all." Per- 
haps you have hoped good of this man. But, alas! he 
forgot it all, and cast away all his impressions. And 
he came again the next Sunday,, and that time he felt 
again. Again the arrow of the Lord seemed to stick fast 
in his heart. But, alas! it was like the rushing of water. 
There was a mark for a moment, but his heart was soon 
healed, he felt not the blow ; and as for persuading him 
to salvation, he was like the deaf adder, " charm we ne- 
ver so wisely," he would not regard us so as to turn from 
his ways. And I have seen him come and go till years 
have rolled over his head, and he has still filled his seat, 
and the minister is still preaching, but in his case preach- 
ing in vain. Still are the tears of mercy flowing for 
him ; still are the thunders of justice launched against 
him ; but he abideth just as he was. In him there is no 
change except this, that now he groweth hard and 
callous. 

But it is not strange that, though wooed by love 
divine, man will not melt ; though thundered at by 
Sinai's own terrific thunderbolts they will not tremble ; 
yea, though Christ himself incarnate in the flesh should 
preach again, yet would they not regard him, and may- 
hap would treat him to-day as their parents did but 
yesterday, when they dragged him out of the city and 
would have cast him headlong from the summit of the 
mount on which the city was builded. I have seen the 
wicked come and go from the place of the holy till his 
conscience was seared, as with a hot iron. 

J3ut now we are going to change our journey. In- 



432 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

stead of going to the house of God we will go another 
way. I have seen the wicked go to the place of the holy, 
that is to the judgment bench. We have had glaring in- 
stances even in the criminal calendar of men who have 
been seen sitting on a judgment bench one day, and in a 
short time they have been standing at the dock them- 
selves. I have wondered what must be the peculiar 
feelings of a man who officiates as a judge, knowing that 
he who judges has been a law-breaker himself. A 
wicked man, a greedy, lustful, drunken man — you know 
such are to be discovered among petty magistrates. We 
have known these sit and condemn the drunkard, when, 
had the world known how they went to bed the night 
before, they would have said to them, "Thou that 
judgest another doest the same thing thyself." There 
have been instances known of men who have condemned 
a poor wretch for shooting a rabbit or stealing a few 
pheasant's eggs, or some enormous crime like that, and 
they themselves have been robbing the coffers of the bank, 
embezzling funds to an immense extent, and cheating 
everybody. I have seen the wicked come and go from 
the holy place, until he came to think that his sins were 
no sins, that the poor must be severely upbraided for 
their iniquities, that what he called the lower classes 
must be kept in check, not thinking that there are none 
so low as those who condemn others whilst they do the 
the same things themselves ; talking of curbing others 
and of judging righteous judgment, when had righteous 
judgment been carried out to the letter, he would him- 
self have been the prisoner, and not have been honored 
with a commission from government. 

But the third case is worse still. " I have seen the 
wicked come and go from the place of the holy " — that 
is, the pulpit. If there be a place under high heaven 
more holy than another, it is the pulpit whence the 



MISCELLANEOUS. 433 

gospel is preached. This is the Thermopylae of Christ- 
endom ; here must the great battle be fought between 
Christ's church and the invading hosts of a wicked world. 
This is the last vestige of anything sacred that is left to 
us. We have no altars now ; Christ is our altar ; but we 
have a pulpit still left, a place which, when a man 
entereth, he might well put off his shoes from his feet, 
for the place whereon he standeth is holy. Consecrated 
by a Saviour's presence, established by the clearness 
and the force of an apostle's eloquence, maintained and 
upheld by the faithfulness and fervor of a succession of 
Evangelists who, like stars, have marked the era in which 
they lived, and stamped it with their names, the pulpit 
is handed down to those of us who occupy it iioav with a 
prestige of everything that is great and holy. Yet I 
have seen the wicked come and go from it. Alas ! if 
there be a sinner that is hardened, it is the man that 
sins and occupies his pulpit. We have heard of such a 
man living in the commission of the foulest sins, and at 
length has been discovered ; and yet such is the filthi- 
ness of mankind, that when he began to preach to the 
people again, they clustered round the beast for the mere 
sake of hearing what he would say to them. We have 
known cases, too, where men, when convicted to their 
own forehead, have unblushingly persevered in proclaim- 
ing a gospel which their lives denied. . . . 

II. And now we are going to his funeral. I shall 
want you to attend it. You need not be particular about 
having on a hat-band, or being arrayed in garments of 
mourning. It does not signify for the wretch we are 
going to bury. There is no need for any very great out- 
ward signs of mourning, for he will be forgotten even in 
the city where he hath done this : therefore we need not 
particularly mourn for him. Let us first go to the 
19 



434 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

funeral and look at the outward ceremonial. "We will 
suppose one or two cases. 

There is a man who has come and gone from the 
place of the holy. He has made a very blazing profes- 
sion. He has been a county magistrate. Now, do you 
see what a stir is made about his poor bones ? There is 
the hearse covered with plumes, and there follows a long 
string of carriages. The country people stare to see 
such a long train of carriages coming to follow one poor 
worm to its resting-place. What pomp ! what grandeur ! 
See how the place of worship is hung with black. There 
seems to be intense mourning made over this man. Will 
you just think of it for a minute, and who are they 
mourning for ? A hypocrite ! Whom is all this pomp 
for ? For one who was a wicked man ; a man who made 
a pretension of religion ; a man who judged others, and 
who ought to have been condemned himself. All this 
pomp for putrid clay. At the head of the mournful 
cavalcade is Beelzebub, leading the procession, and look- 
ing back with twinkling eye, and leer of malicious joy, 
says, " Here is fine pomp to conduct a soul to hell 
with !" Ah ! plumes and hearse for the man who is 
being conducted to his last abode in Tophet ! A string 
of carriages to do honor to the man whom God hath 
cursed in life and cursed in death ; for the hope of the 
hypocrite is evermore an accursed one. And a bell is 
ringing, and the clergyman is reading the funeral service, 
and is burying the man "insure and certain hope." 
Gh ! what a laugh rings up from somewhere a little 
lower down than the grave ! Trust to a bubble, and 
hope to fly to the stars ; trust to the wild winds, that 
they shall conduct you safely to heaven ; but trust to 
such a hope as that, and thou art a madman indeed. . . 
Oh ! if we judged rightly, when a hypocrite died, we 
should do him no honor. Ah ! when a godly man dies, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 435 

ye may make lamentation over him, ye may well carry 
him with solemn pomp unto his grave, for there is an 
odor in his bones, there is a sweet savor about him that 
even God delighteth in, for " precious in the sight of the 
Lord is the death of his saints." But the gilded hypo- 
crite, the varnished deceiver, the well accoutred wolf in 
sheeps' clothing — away with pomp for him ! 

Bad men die out quickly, for the world feels it is a 
good thing to be rid of them ; they are not worth re- 
membering. But the death of a good man, the man 
who was sincerely a Christian — how different is that! 
And when you see the body of a saint, if he has served 
God with all his might, how sweet it is to look upon 
him — ah, and to look upon his coffin too, or upon his 
tomb in after years ! Go into Bunhill-fields, and stand 
by the memorial of John Bunyan, and you will say, 
"Ah! there lies the head that contained the brain 
which thought out that wondrous dream of the Pilgrim's 
Progress from the City of Destruction to the better 
land. There lie the fingers that wrote those wondrous 
lines which depict the story of him who came at last to 
the land Beulah, and waded through the flood, and en- 
tered into the celestial city. And there are the eyelids 
which he once spoke of, when he said, "If I lie in prison 
u^ntil the moss grows on my eyelids, I will never make a 
promise to withhold from preaching." And there is that 
bold eye that penetrated the judge, when he said, " If 
you will let me out of prison to-day, I will preach again 
to-morrow, by the help of God." And there lies that 
loving hand that was ever ready to receive into com- 
munion all them that loved the Lord Jesus Christ : I 
love the hand that wrote the book, " Water Baptism no 
Bar to Christian Communion." I love him for that sake 
alone, and if he had written nothing else but that, I 
would say, "John Bunyan, be honored for ever." 



436 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

III. We are to write his epitaph ; and his epitaph is 
contained in these short words: "this also is vanity.-" 
And now in a few words I will endeavor to show that 
it is vanity for a man to come and go from the house of 
God, and yet have no true religion. If I made up my 
mind to hate God, to sin against him, and to be lost at 
last, I would do it thoroughly, out and out. If I had 
determined to be damned, and had calculated the chances, 
and made up my mind that it would be better to be cast 
away for ever, I know there is one thing I would not do, 
I would not go to the house of God. "Well may we write 
over him, " This also is vanity!" But, sir, you will be more 
laughed at for your pretensions than if you had made 
none. Having professed to be religious, and having pre- 
tended to carry it out, you shall have more scorn than 
if you had came out in your right colors, and have said, 
"Who is the Lord, that I should fear him ? Who is 
Jehovah, that I should obey his voice ?" And now, are 
there any here who are so wicked as to choose eternal 
wrath ? if thou art choosing self -righteousness, if thou 
art choosing pride, or lust, or the pleasures of this world ; 
remember, thou art choosing pride, or lust, or the 
pleasures of this world ; remember, thou art choosing 
damnation, for the two things cannot but go together. 
Sin is the guilt, and hell is the bread beneath it. If you 
choose sin, you have virtually chosen perdition. Think 
of this, I beseech you. 

"O Lord! do thou the sinner turn 1 
Now rouse him from his senseless state; 
O let him not thy counsel spurn, 
Nor rue his fatal choice too late." 



MISCELLANEOUS. 43? 



A GOOD MINISTEE. 

A SERMON PREACHED IN" TABERNACLE CHURCH, (BAP- 
TIST) PHILADELPHIA, BY GEORGE E. REES, PASTOR, 
OK THE DEATH OF W. T. BRAKTLY, D. D. , A FORMER 
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. 

A good minister of Jesus Christ. — 1 Tim. iv: 6. 
WILL speak of Dr. Brantly under the guidance of 
-*- the text that I have read: "A good minister of 
Jesus Christ." There are many ministers in the church. 
Every one who enters upon the service of the brother- 
hood for Christ's sake is a minister — the teachers, the 
visitors, the givers, the helpers — all who go on the Lord's 
errands, all who do good unto men, are ministers of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. But a minister of Jesus is chiefly 
known as one who devotes himself to the preaching of 
the Word, and to the oversight of the Church of Cod. 

I. The essential elements of a good minister of Christ 
are found primarily in his personal character. 

There is no work in life in which fitness depends so 
largely on character as that of the ministry. Genius 
might set her zeal on the spoken word, and common- 
place truths may shine with new lustre ; knowledge 
might buttress the truth with facts and arguments ; im- 
agination might clothe the Word with beauty, so as to 
kindle the delight and awaken the emotions of hearers ; 
zeal might bring system and efficiency into every depart- 
ment of ministerial labor, yet these, separated from 
genuineness and goodness of character, do not render 
one a good minister of Christ. 

A lawyer's argument in a court of law is not vitiated 
because the speaker may be an unjust and wicked man ; 
there is no connection between his professional calling 



438 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

and his moral character. A physician ministering to 
the sick prescribes his remedies, and nothing in his 
character or bearing can possibly change the effect of 
his prescription on the health of the patient. But, when 
we come to the work of the ministry, we find that the 
effect of spoken trnth is dependent on the character of 
the speaker. The truth indeed, is as shot fired from a 
cannon ; but the force that sends it forth with effect lies 
hidden in the heart of life. 

Eeverence for the dead and sorrow at their departure, 
I know, dim our vision as to faults in their charac- 
ter, and bring into vividness virtues that had been hid- 
den through life ; and so it should ever be ; scars and 
flaws and blotches make deleterious fare on which to 
feed our eyes, even when they are on the living, how 
much more so when they are upon the dead. Let us ever 
remember that infirmities are transient and will pass away; 
but virtues are eternal. Infirmities are the accidents of 
Christian manhood ; virtues are woven into its very tex- 
ture. Intimities are the lingering traces of a corrupt 
nature fast sinking into death ; virtues are signs of the 
germinating and budding of that immortal life which 
Christ gives us, and which will grow and bloom and 
ripen in the after-world. 

But it is one of our chastened joys to-day that we can 
trace the life of this revered friend without being dis- 
turbed by memories of glaring faults and deficiencies. 
Often we have to forget, to forgive, and to extenuate, 
while we speak of even endeared and worthy friends ; 
but it is our privilege to review a life which suggests no 
memories bat which are pleasant, ennobling, and assur- 
ing. To pronounce his life perfect would be to deny that 
it was human ; but to say that it was pre-eminent among 
other lives, is only to give it the tribute which it merits. 
There is no higher eulogy that we can give at such a time 



MISCELLANEOUS. 439 

as this than to say, He was a good man and a Christian. 
Intellectual greatness, social distinction, and worldly 
success will elicit praise and admiration ; but it is good- 
ness which compels the heart to render the homage of its 
affection, and perpetuates itself in the loving memories 
of the living. 

Dr. Brantly's character was not marked by any one 
conspicuous, overshadowing excellency, but by the 
blending of many ; so that there was symmetry in his 
life. There was in him the grace of proportion. His 
life was orderly, systematic, harmonious and balanced. 
There were no corners and crevices and angles in him. 
The intellectual did not overtop the moral and emotional. 
Strength blended with gentleness. Strictness was soft- 
ened by charity. Self-assurance, which is an element 
in every successful life, was allied with humility. Fervor 
was controlled by sobriety. He was, therefore, not an 
enthusiast, but an earnest man ; he was not a reformer 
sent to destroy, but a wise builder. He was not isolated 
from his fellow men by reason of any great, extraordi- 
nary gift — like a high mountain peak standing apart 
from the lesser hills — but he touched them at many 
points, and walked with them in familiar fellowship, for 
he had so much in common with other men. 

II. The essential elements of a good minister are 
found in his gifts and consecrations. 

His wide success was reached, not, by one particular 
gift — not by his gift of utterance alone, not by his pas- 
toral skill alone, not by his scholarship alone, — but by 
his varied powers and devotion working in harmony to- 
wards one specific end. His sermons instructed, quick- 
ened, and comforted his hearers ; never perhaps rising 
to sublime heights in eloquence, and never falling into 
weakness or commonplace ; thoughtful and graceful, 



440 MEMORIAL TPdBUTES. 

spoken with benign countenance, and couched in happy 
diction. 

Perhaps he owed as much of his success in the min- 
istry to his pastoral gift, as to his pulpit. In fruitful- 
ness, this is the greater gift of the two, and, perhaps, 
the rarer. The solid abiding work in the church is 
mostly done in this way. Here his gracious nature 
came into loving contact with other natures, and all felt 
the touch of a holy presence. Two needed elements for 
pastoral work are the power of sympathy and godly con- 
versation ; both of these were possessed in an unusual 
degree by him. Through pastoral work, a connection 
is established between the preacher and the hearer, a 
connection like to that in the great system of telephon- 
ing ; the living voice speaking from the platform, vi- 
brates in the hearer's heart. Eot the least of his powers 
was that of Christian conversation. One, in writing to 
me said : '-'It almost paid to be sick to have him come 
to see you, and to speak of Jesus, and pray with you." 

I must omit speaking of other elements of a good 
minister of Jesus Christ, and will now refer to his work 
while pastor of this church. . . . 

His peaceful, Christlike life is ended. And within 
five brief hours after the Sabbath-evening benediction 
fell from this lips he opened his eyes on scenes in the 
eternal world. An angel from Cod touched the mortal 
chains that held him here, and his spirit rose, ransomed 
and liberated, to walk in the light of God's face. The 
conflict lasted but a moment ; his spirit quickly yielded; 
and with a meekness already possessed, it entered upon 
the inheritance of the saints in light. 

It was a sudden death. Some may covet it, dreading 
lingering pain and wearisome watchings ; some may 
covet it to escape the torment of fear; some call it the 
best and happiest of deaths. We know not, except this; 






MISCELLANEOUS. 441 

that it fills the mind with holy awe. So near the other 
world we live that we pass the dividing line in so brief a 
time ; so little hold we have on life that in a thoughtless 
moment it drops like a slender thread from our hand. 

" Sudden death." We know not what it means ; we 
gauge not its power to alarm and shake the soul, unless 
some fellow-pilgrim has fallen at our side, in a moment 
we thought not, some loved one hastened away without 
having time to say to us "farewell." 

He passed away in a moment, before friends could 
gather to witness the last scene, to say their good-bye. 
Almost in the twinkling of an eye, his spirit "glided 
into the company of the great and mighty angels, passed 
into the dread light and amazement of eternity, learned 
the great secret, and gazed upon the awful splendors of 
the eternal world." 

Your friend will speak to you no more ; his last 
counsel has been spoken, his last visit has been made. 
Yet he speaks. There are echoes of his words still in 
your memories ; the imprint of his influence is on your 
life. Many of you are what you are through his life 
and teaching. Some of you were brought to Christ by 
him ; keep his memory sacred by renewing your covenant 
with his Lord to day. Some of you walked in very near 
and tender fellowship with him ; keep remembrance of 
him by cherishing his spirit and emulating his example. 

But especially do I look on some of you to whom he 
preached the gospel of Christ — and preached it in vain. 
By personal entreaty and public address, he sought to 
lead you to the Saviour, and he sought in vain. Twenty- 
five years have flown, and you are still without the king- 
dom of God, with the accumulated guilt of a wasted life 
and of perpetual rejection of the Son of G-od upon your 
head. You cherish his memory with tender sorrow. 



442 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

Do not slight his Master, do not refuse his testimony, 
for he longed after you as "a good minister of Jesus 
Christ." 



T 



A STATESMAN. 

TIMES OF MOURNING. 
EEV. ALEXANDER FLETCHER, D.D. 

ON OCCASION OP THE DEATH OP THE LATE SIR ROBERT PEEL. 

"A time to mourn" — Ecclesiastes iii : 4. 

HE inspired writer of this Book designates himself 
"the Preacher " The Book is entitled "the words 
of the Preacher." The royal author was Solomon, the 
wisest of men. 

By the assistance of the Holy Spirit, I shall, first, 
mention some chief reasons of mourning ; secondly, in- 
troduce to your notice illustrious men presented m the 
Holy Scripture, over whose death mourning was made ; 
and lastly, some remarks on the sudden death of our il- 
lustrious statesman, calculated to promote our mutual 
improvement. 

I. Of all reasons of mourning, sin is the chief. Our 
own sins, and the sins of others ; our personal, and our 
family sins ; our sins as a church and congregation ; our 
sins as a city, and as a nation, loudly demand our peni- 
tence, our mourning, our tears ! In mourning over 
personal sins, may Divine grace teach us to follow David 
as a pattern ! Observe Psalm li : 3, 4 — "For I acknow- 
ledge my transgressions : and my sin is ever before me. 
Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this 
evil in Thy sight : that Thou mightest be justified when 
Thou speakest, and clear when Thou judgest." 

If our hearts are properly affected, we cannot behold 
the sins of others, without feelings of grief, and expres- 



MiS CELLANEO US. 443 

sions of sorrow. David said (Psalm cxix), "Kivers of 
waters run down mine eyes, because they kept not Thy 
law. I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved ; be- 
cause they kept not Thy "Word." Jeremiah breathed 
David's spirit, and he also shed floods of tears over the 
sins of his people and nation. 

Oh ! how peculiarly touching were the mournful 
lamentations which our Lord uttered over sinful, guilty, 
doomed Jerusalem ! Matthew xxiii : 37,38, "0 Jeru- 
salem." 

The death of relatives calls for sorrow and mourning . 
When the wife is deprived of her husband, or the hus- 
band of his wife ; — when parents are deprived of their 
children, and children of their parents ; — when brothers 
die, or sisters are removed by death ; — when ministers 
are taken away from their people, or valuable active 
church members laid in the grave, these are times for 
mourning and sorrow I There are many in this assem- 
bly in mourning over departed relatives. 

When relatives die, without leaving behind any evi- 
dence of their safety in a future world, oh ! it is partic- 
ularly a time to mourn ! Absalom died a depraved rebel, 
thirsting even for his father's blood. Never, never did 
father mourn over the death of a graceless son, as holy 
David mourned over the death of Absalom. 2 Samuel 
xviii : 33. 

II. Eminent saints mentioned in scripture, over whose 
death mourning was made. 

Jacob when dying was evidently encircled with a 
halo of glory ! After he had poured out prophetic bless- 
ings on the head of his twelve sons, in regular order, one 
by one, with the utmost composure, "he gathered up 
his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was 
gathered unto his people." Joseph, more than all his 
brethren, mourned over his beloved father's death. 



444 MEMO HI AL TRIBUTES. 

Genesis 1 : 1 — " And Joseph fell upon his father's face, 
and wept upon him, and kissed him/' To show the 
veneration in which the memory of this departed 
patriarch wa« held, "the Egyptians mourned for him 
threescore and ten days." When Jacob died, his sons 
had reason to say in the language of the psalmist (Psalm 
xii : 1), " Help Lord ; for the godly man ceaseth ; for the 
faithful fail from among the children of men \" Moses 
life from its commencement to its close, was certainly 
unexampled ; from the time of his appearance as a babe 
in the ark of bulrushes, to his position on the summit of 
Pisgah, when his spirit took its flight to the glories of 
heaven. Before his departure to the heavenly Canaan, 
God gave him a panoramic, and we may add, miraculous 
prospect of the earthly Canaan, " the goodly heritage of 
the host of nations." When he saw the fairest and 
richest portion of the globe, which Israel was destined 
soon to possess, he instantly dropped down dead. The 
Jews say, ' ' with a kiss from the mouth of God !" 
Happy expression, descriptive of a death, most happy 
and honored and blessed ! 

There was great mourning at his death. "And the 
children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab, 
thirty days." 

Stephen. His early, sudden, violent, cruel death 
called forth great and unfeigned lamentation. Acts viii: 
2 — " And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and 
made great lamentation over him." Certainly, speaking- 
after the manner of men, the church sustained an im- 
mense loss, by the death of Stephen, the Proto-martyr ! 
His qualifications for the holy ministry, were of a dis- 
tinguished character, and in a distinguished degree. He 
was eminently, a most gifted servant of Christ, both as 
to natural talents, and as to Divine graces. His labors 
were attended with the most marked success, which ex- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 445 

cited the enmity of the adversaries of the Cross, and 
accelerated his death. His course was short. There is 
no evidence that it lasted so long as twelve months. The 
church could "ill spare" a man, a saint, a minister of 
such piety, such zeal, such usefulness. 

When Stephen was removed by death, the mourning 
church found great reason to pray to its Divine Head 
and Saviour, "Help Lord, for the godly man ceaseth 
and the faithful fail from among the children of men !" 

III. Our illustrious statesman. 

He was born in Lancashire, on the fifth of July, 1788, 
during the very heat of the first French Eevolution, 
when the thrones and dynasties of Europe were threat- 
ened with extinction. 

His talents, learning, industry, persevering activity, 
studious and contemplative habits, varied and extensive 
experience crowned with commanding senatorial elo- 
quence, qualified him for filling with honor to himself, 
and especially with benefit to his country, the highest 
offices of the State. 

He had a large share of the amiable virtues. 

It is with great satisfaction that I record the following 
circumstance. It was the practice of Sir Eobert, be- 
fore leaving home for the House of Commons, regularly 
to enter his closet, and supplicate Divine counsel and 
assistance. This leads us to conclude, that the mind of 
this eminent statesman was not only adorned with 
natural virtues, but enriched with grace. True Beligion 
alone teaches " to acknowledge Him in all our ways, "who 
has promised "to direct our steps." (Proverbs iii : 6.) 

Few men have been held in such universal esteem. 
Throughout the whole land there is an excitement man- 
ifested by a determination to raise memorials in every 
part of our Island, as lasting testimonies of the nation'^ 
respect. 



446 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

We must not omit to observe that our departed states- 
man had a deep-rooted aversion to worldly pomp, and 
every description of gorgeous ostentation. He has left 
an admonition to his descendants, never to accept of 
the honors of the peerage, as a reward for any services, 
however great, which they may be enabled to render 
their country. 

The statesman's abode was a temple consecrated to 
the worship of God. Family worship was regularly ob- 
served, and the head of the household acted himself as 
chaplain and priest. Psalm cxviii: 15 — "The voice of 
rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the 
righteous." 

He has earned the honor, and the title of patriot. 
The cheap loaf of bread in loudest sweetest accents pro- 
claims his patriotism. While his memory lives, he shall 
be held in admiration as the poor man's friend. How 
true of the merciful patriot, 

"Compassion dwells upon his mind, 
To works of mercy still inclin'd: 
He lends the poor some present aid, 
Or gives them not to be repaid." 

Hi& death. The event was sudden and unexpected. 
It was by a fall from his horse. In the very meridian of 
his mental vigor, activity and usefulness, he was re- 
moved by the hand of death. He had labored long, 
and much, and usefully. But his time was come, his 
work was done. Britain's God had no more work for 
him to perform. And now, amidst a nation's mournful, 
thankful, and affectionate remembrance, he " rests from 
his labors, and his works do follow him." (Rev. xiv: 13.) 

Concluding reflections. This event calls on us to 
sympathize with the excellent surviving widow who sus- 
tains an earthly loss that can never be made up in this 



MISCELLANEOUS. 447 

world. Oh, may she cleave to Jesus as her everlasting 
Husband, who is willing to comfort her under this heavy 
bereavement, by the consolations of his Gospel, and the 
blessings of His fellowship ! 

"He sympathizes with our grief, 
And to the mourner sends relief." 

This dispensation calls upon us to adore the sovereign- 
ty of God. Let us say in the words of the Chaldean 
monarch — (Dan. iv: 35) — "None can stay His hand, 
or say unto him, what doest Thou ?" 

Is human life so uncertain ? In the very midst of 
life, are we in death ? Then, what wisdom to be in 
readiness at our Lord's call ! 

Have we fled for mercy to Jesus ? Oh ! let us say 
now, and may the Holy Spirit enable us, " I flee unto 
Thee to hide me." (Psalm cxliii: 9.) 

Slumbering sinner, flee ! Escape for your life. If you 
flee now to Jesus, your salvation is sure. If you delay, 
your perdition may be sealed ! How sweet the voice of 
mercy. (i Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt, xi: 28.) "Him 
that cometh unto Me I will no wise cast out." (John 
vi: 37.) 

It is my affectionate wish and earnest prayer, that 
when we are removed to the world of spirits, the follow- 
ing most lovely and animating words may be applicable 
to us all — (Rev. xiv : 23) — " Blessed are the dead, 
which die in the Lord from henceforth : yea, saith the 
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors ; and their 
works do follow them." Amen ! 



448 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



A CALAMITY AT SEA.* 

KEV. S. E. CATTLEY, M. A., ENGLAND. 

WITH SOME NOTICE OP THE DEATH OF WILLIAM SEKELTON, ESQ., FIFTY-THREE 
TEARS A DIRECTOR OF THE ORPHAN ASYLUM. 

" And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have kindled it; it shall not 
be quenched. — Ezekiel xx : 48. 

/^VCCASIONAL references to some of the passing 
^^ events of life produce more lasting effects upon the 
mind than eloquent and persuasive exhortations to holi- 
ness, or lucid disquisitions upon the doctrines of the gos- 
pel. Exhortations, however powerful, cease to excite, 
— doctrine, however forcibly illustrated, fails to interest 
the soul. But when we contemplate an event of Provi- 
dence, we feel that we ourselves might have been its 
actors ; that we might have recently occupied the alarm- 
ing position of those of our fellow-creatures who were so 
circumstanced, that their choice of death was of two 
kinds, and those two kinds the most terrible. The 
choice lay between a deep and salt sea wave, or a fierce 
and agonizing flame. 

This accident, in which many of our countrymen 
have perished, and which has produced such a convul- 
sion of feeling, that "all faces from the south to 
the north" may be said to be "burned therein." It 
seems therefore desirable, that we should turn aside this 
morning, and contemplate such a sad spectacle, especially 
tracing the event alluded to its great and mysterious 
Source, and endeavoring to derive such profit as a merci- 
ful God has ordained that it should afford. 

The public channels of intelligence will already have 
informed you, that, on Thursday week, the ship " Ocean 

* The " Ocean Monarch " burned at sea with nearly 400 lives. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 449 

Monarch " safely left the Mersey and sailed for America. 
Her passengers, most of them, were emigrants. This 
class of persons surely demand alike our sympathy, our 
best wishes, our sincere prayers. In their native land 
they have too frequently felt the pressure of poverty. At 
home the times are hard, prospects gloomy, friends are 
few ! Sad perhaps at first, but rendered familiar by 
necessity, and the pressure of pecuniary difficulties, the 
proposal to leave their land becomes the mournful sub- 
ject of their discourse. Necessity decides the question ! 
They collect the remnants of their once comfortable 
fortune — all at home is hopeless ; all beyond the sea, at 
least is uncertain, and may be prosperous. They and 
their children join the crowded ship — the last affection- 
ate embrace, and the last heart-felt benedictions are 
given and received with friends on shore ; the anchor is 
weighed ; the expanding canvass invites the breeze : and 
the emigrants seek in the new world, and in strange and 
foreign lands, that provision denied them in their own ; 
though still enjoying that privilege, of which circum- 
stances and situation cannot deprive them — "being heirs 
together of the grace of life." 

And what are we all but emigrants ? What is our land 
but one, which, if we would make it our home, and if we 
would enjoy all its good things, it will be but for a short 
season ; and all those good things are incapable of afford- 
ing permanent relief. Do we never feel this ? Though 
earth be the place of our nativity, it is neither our native 
home, nor a state that can satisfy our souls. This home 
must perish. Its honors, hopes, riches, crowns, sceptres, 
all must fail ! Oh ! why then do we struggle against 
impossibilities ; and try to attain here, that which only 
belongs to another country, a new and eternal state ? 

And if we are emigrants, you see builded for your trans- 
mission over life's troubled sea, that spiritual ship, that 



450 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

ark of Christ's church, in which you have been recognized 
by baptism ! That ark is composed of Christ and His mem- 
bers all fitly framed together, a habitation of safety. Ce- 
mented with love, united in hope, preserved in redemp- 
tion, this spiritual ark has ever sheltered one blessed fam- 
ily of the faithful. Attach yourselves to the real members 
of this communion : bid farewell to many things which 
you have made your friends : your sins ; your tempta- 
tions ; your anxieties ; and your over-careful 'mind ; — 
much which human nature esteems, and much which 
human infirmity loves ; — this day come thou and all the 
house into the ark, and with Christ as the " Captain of 
your salvation," emigrate "to a better country, even a 
heavenly." 

"Watch and be ready I" Are there not some here, 
whose prospects are equally fair as were those of the 
" Ocean Monarch !" You are saying, " the wide and 
varied sea of life is before me ; I am happy ; my bark is 
trimmed ; my sails are filled ; I feel life's breezes wafting 
me on ; admiring eyes and friendly salutations accom- 
pany me ; I will bound from wave to wave, froin joy to 
joy ; I care not for the future ; the present happy mo- 
ments are enough for me !" 

Some of us, perhaps, have been startled by similar 
alarms from our midnight slumbers. Terrible it is to 
see and here fche raging and crackling enemy, consum- 
ing, with relentless power, the house which was once 
our home, and the rooms in which we had passed such 
happy days. But far more terrible is it, without a hand 
to aid, or a neighbor to shelter us, to stand upon the deck 
of a crowded ship, and see the livid and curling streams, 
ascending from below, and shrouding in a canopy of fire 
the fair white sails, the heavy and threatening spars, and 
the once beautiful network above. At such a moment 
all thoughts and recollections seem to vanish in the des- 



MISCELLANEOUS. 451 

pairing rea'lity of the present. The ocean around, the 
heated and blazing deck, alike bespeak approaching 
death ; and approaching death consumes the mind with 
indescribable dismay ! That fear of death is twofold. 
The dying agony from fire or water to the gasping and 
writhing body, and the fear of that future doom, arising 
from the consciousness of sin, which fire could not purify, 
and water could not purge. 

The bravest would be pallid at such a moment. Even 
the resigned and sincere Christian could not fail to en- 
ter into the terrors of the calamity ; and though lie 
woul feel, "I the .Lord have done it," and though he 
would bow to God's high and mysterious decree, yet who 
would not feel that it were sweeter u to sleep in Jesus/' 
in a calmer death, and leave the world in peace, than to 
sink amid the terrible cries of the dying, with no friend 
to soothe our pillow : or perish in the flame, with none 
to moisten our parched lips ? 

We might have been actors in the calamity of the 
" Ocean Monarch," but we must be actors in that great 
shipwreck of creation, and participate in its glories and 
its grandeurs, or in its sorrows and its sighs. Let us be as 
eager for our soul's salvation, as the poor sufferers in that 
ship, were for their lives ! Remember how eagerly they 
strived to save themselves — what energy — what effort — 
what frenzy ! Mothers cast their children to the waves ; 
or leaped from the burning ruin with their infants em- 
braced in their arms ; husbands, whom affection could 
not separate from those they loved, wildly followed their 
frantic wives. . . . 

Our late venerated friend William Skelton was an 
example of activity and industry. From very early years 
he excelled in the execution of works of art ; and his 
masterly hand may be traced in those numerous engrav- 
ings which will long commemorate his talents. As his 



452 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

frame was unbent by years, so his eye retained its power, 
and bis hand its nerve ; so that, within a short period of 
his death, he passed many hours of his blessed and 
tranquil life, in the use of his graver and his pen- 
cil ! 

He was also an example of friendship and kindness. 
He entered with peculiar pleasure into the employments 
and amusements of the children of this Asylum. The 
records of the Charity show, that, during his long life, 
his contributions from time to time, have been very con- 
siderable. When in his eighty-fifth year he was a fre- 
quent and welcome visitor in society, walking to the re- 
sidences of his most distant friends. At my own fireside, 
I have witnessed the ready and lively interest which he 
took in the affairs of manhood, or the merry joys of 
children. And he was much esteemed by the elder mem- 
bers of the illustrious house of Hanover, all of whose 
portraits, I believe, he delineated ! 

But above ail, he was an example of quiet and un- 
pretending practical religion. His faith was manifested 
in actions, not in words. His own home, little known 
to the world, was one in which godliness, kindness, 
charity, and purity predominated ! His views and con- 
versations upon religious subjects were clear ; but he was 
diffident and humble ; and on holy things, his feelings 
were deep, his words were few ! His latter years, like 
his protracted life, smiled in peace and friendship ; he 
was mercifully permitted to enjoy the heaped-up measure 
of his fourscore years, exempt from (( labor and sorrow." 
He thanked G-od for it ; till, his long, healthy, regular, 
and contented life was shaken by a sudden seizure, from 
which he nearly recovered ; but a repetition of which, 
closed his days, in the faith of Christ, " in a good old 
age, and full of years," 

Such was the end of our departed friend. With it I 



MISCELLANEOUS. 458 

gladly close, in happy contrast, the exciting subject 
which has principally occupied our attention ! 

But let us " watch," and " be ready :" so that, when 
our voyage is over, and we are cast upon the shore of an 
eternal state, in the mingled and awful wreck of this 
world, we may be prepared to commit ourselves into the 
ocean of God's mercy ; or, if weak and wavering in that 
trying moment, we may be able to seize upon some of 
the promises of the Gospel, or support our souls with 
some of the assurances of grace, that so, as they of old 
did, " some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the 
ship," we may all " escape safe to land " through Jesus 
Christ our Lord ! Amen. 



A COAL MINE CALAMITY.* 

THE MYSTERIES OF PROVIDENCE. 
REV. T. BINNEY, ENGLAND. 
" Thy judgments are a great deep" — Psalm xxxvi : 6. 
T\7E were lately called to sympathize with our Queen, 

* * and we are doing it yet ; our sympathy is as real 
and as deep at this moment as ever, though it may not 
have such public and visible expression : and now that 
illustrious mourner, that Koyal widow, is summoned by 
God, with us, to sympathize with the humble and lowly, 
who in such numbers have been made widows and father- 
less. I don't know that we could do better this morning 
than meditate a little upon this event, with which you 
are all familiar. Anything that will soften the heart, 
anything that overcomes our selfishness, anything that 
makes us think of others and feel for them, is medicinal 
and for our good. 

* By the breaking of a coal mine shaft, 219 men are suffocated. 



454 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

The catastrophe is such a one as never happened be- 
fore. Many disasters have happened in coal mines, but 
the present was something very extraordinary. There 
was no preparation. Sometimes men have reason to ap- 
prehend danger. Women have to see them go to their 
work under the consciousness of some special peril, which 
has to be braved ; and then there is tremulous apprehen- 
sion, and a sort of preparation for anything that may 
occur. It was not so here. There were no special cir- 
cumstances — nothing to excite apprehension ; the men 
and boys had finished their work, and were about to re- 
turn to their homes, when they were suddenly over- 
taken by this terrible event, and those who waited to 
welcome them are now widows and orphans. There was 
apparently nothing but the ordinary peril of a miner's 
life, which custom makes to be thought but little of. 
When soldiers and sailors go to war people are prepared 
to hear that many of them are killed — they expect to 
learn of a battle and its results ; and so there is a tremu- 
lous anxiety, which is a preparation. There was nothing 
of that sort here. Suddenly there was a crash, and then 
a fearful rumor spread from house to house along the 
row of little habitations, and women and children 
were seen hurrying out, wondering and anxious to know 
what had really occurred. 

Then came a long and terrible period of suspense. 
The obstacle could not be got through. 

At length the mine is penetrated, discovery made, 
and intelligence brought up. "Well." "All dead. 
All dead ; lying dead in groups." " Did you see 
John ?" "I saw him with the three boys, all lying to- 
gether. They seemed perfectly calm." And so one after 
another was indicated. The men went down again, and 
the awful truth was confirmed — " not a single man or 
boy alive ;" men and lads, husbands, fathers, sons, 



MISCELLANEOUS. 455 

nephews, grandsons, all dead ; apparently having died 
more from the noxious gases than from anything else. 
Most of them seemed to have died calmly ; but some 
strong men bore upon them the marks of intense agony, 
as if to the very last there had been with them a 
desperate struggle for life. But they were all dead. 
" Thy judgments are a great deep." 

Why there should be suffering and sorrow in the 
world has been, you know, a question pressing upon 
humanity in all ages. If God be omnipotent, why ? 
If God be benevolent, why ? If there be a God at all, 
why ? Eead the oldest book in the Bible, and you find 
a constant argument upon these mysterious, deep, and 
dark judgments, and how to reconcile them with just 
conceptions of Deity and of providence. Into the ques- 
tion of moral evil, the existence of sin, we will not go ; 
but it may be remarked, that much physical evil is the 
direct issue of sin. There are many forms of suffering 
in the world that would not be here but for sin; yet 
there are other cases, like the present, that seem to have 
no relation to moral evil, being separated entirely from 
the will of any man ; and are what we call accidents," 
or the " visitations of God." The anti-supernaturalist 
may be found objecting to our Bible because it contains 
so much that is mysterious ; but we would say to him, 
-" There is as much that is mysterious in your Bible as 
there is in ours." Suppose him to be one who believes in 
a personal God, a personal Governor of the world, and 
he says, "I cannot receive your Bible because I read in 
that book such extraordinary things, about what God 
has done and said, that I am shocked." My dear friend, 
have you read your own Bible ? Do you meet with no 
mysteries there ? Can you understand all the pages and 
passages in it ? Are there no terrible facts occurring on 
the surface of this earth ? Is everything that happens 



456 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

in harmony with your conceptions of a benevolent 
Governor ? Would you allow that gallant vessel to be 
dashed to pieces on those rocks ? Would you have per- 
mitted twenty tons of iron to descend the shaft of that 
pit ? Your God did not prevent it ; the God of your 
Book — the only Book you acknowledge — this world. It 
is not a fine and beautiful page always. You may talk 
about fruits and flowers, and admire them, but do not 
shut your eyes to the great and terrible facts that con- 
front you. Do you pretend that your Bible, the Book of 
Nature, will explain these things ? I do not tell you 
that I have got a Bible to explain all these things. I 
have got a Bible to teach me a great deal more and some- 
thing higher ; and it may be that the Bible comes to me 
with parallel, and analogous things in it just that I may 
understand and know that it comes from the same God 
— that the Creator of the world is the speaker in the 
Book ; and that it is for me to listen and to obtain the 
higher revelation. And perhaps through that 1 shall 
come to understand the mystery. In reading the one 
book or the other, we had better just stand dumb and 
thoughtful, endeavoring to extract from the great 
mystery a religious advantage. There are things which 
we cannot comprehend by our understanding, but in 
which we may acquiesce by faith. 

Of course we can understand that the world is 
governed by great general laws. Great general principles 
and laws are ever at work, and we may depend upon it 
that they will not be suspended for us. There is a young 
mother on a beautiful spring morning, sitting there by 
an open window ; she is looking at and enjoying the 
landscape — and something far more lovely than that, for 
she has her beautiful baby, her first-born upon her arm. 
She turns her eyes for a moment, and the little child, 
chirping and cooing, makes a sudden movement, and is 



MISCELLANEOUS. 457 

out at the window ; it falls down upon the pavement be- 
low, and is picked up bleeding and mangled — maimed 
for life ! If you had been the Governor of the world, 
with your particular affections, with your attention to 
the little, and the individual, you would have interfered 
to save the child. God could have done it, but that 
would have been a miracle — that would have been to 
govern the world upon the principle of miracle. But 
the law exists, and it must act, in spite of everything. 
If the twelve apostles were walking upon a railway 
when the train was rushing along it would go over them 
if they did not get out of the way, and the whole twelve 
apostles would be crushed to atoms. God would not in- 
terfere. You are to understand, then, that that is the 
general law. If we go back to the question, "Why 
should things be so constituted ?" we may ask further, 
4 ' Why should there be a world like this at all ?" 
Enough for us, however, to know that it is so. But we 
believe that along with these general laws there is a place 
for prayer, there is a sphere for God's agency ; but we 
are to remember that there is a constant operation of 
these laws. If every time we got into danger or trouble 
there was to be a Divine interposition — as a poor, silly, 
indulgent mother always comes in between the child 
and the consequence of its fault — we should never be 
anything. 

Hence we can understand the great lesson of our 
Lord, when he said to those that told him of the Galile- 
ans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with there sacrifices, 
" Suppose ye that they were sinners above all the Gali- 
leans, because they suffered such things ? Or those 
eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew 
them, think ye that they were sinners above all men 
that dwelt in Jerusalem?" No; they were standing 
there when the tower fell, and they were killed ; it would 
20 



458 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

have been the same whether they were saints or sinners. 
We are not to judge of God as if the calamities that 
happen to men were indications of peculiar Divine senti- 
ments, and were judgments upon individuals. But these 
things may well teach us our own littleness, and the ne- 
cessity of humility, that tve may have to adore where we 
cannot comprehend. " His judgments are a great deep," 
which we cannot fathom, and yet, when we look up our 
religious faith may help us to say, in the words that im- 
mediately precede these, " Thy righteousness is like the 
mountains ;" our Consciousness of the rectitude of God 
stands out like the mountains in the sun, visible even in 
spite of this dark tumultuous ocean which we cannot 
fathom. We are sure that there is a God who ruleth and 
governeth, whatever the mysteries that may surround 
his operations. Hence you have religious faith. You 
have it in Job, when he says, " Though he slay me, 
yet will I trust in him." There is the child's heart 
uttering itself from beneath the man's understanding. 
Though his understanding was perplexed and baffled, his 
faith remained firm. You hear it in David. Was there 
ever anything sublimer in this world than that little 
sentence of David — which may teach us all to look at 
distress, calamity, and the terrible judgments of God — 
"I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because thou 
didst it"? I cannot understand it, I cannot comprehend 
it ; if I was to open my mouth at all I should speak fool- 
ishly. It is to me a great deep, and so I will lay my 
hand upon my mouth, and be dumb, for it is God : Thou 
didst it. Ah, there is the sublimity of religious faith- - 
the universe is not a machine. It is not a number of 
wheels grinding out its results, without feeling, without 
thought, without purpose, and grinding me in the midst 
of them. No. Thou — a personality with feeling, thought, 
purpose, my Father — " Thou didst it." And I will wait 



MISCELLANEOUS. 459 

till the time comes when in Thy light I shall see light — 
shall know what I know not now — and my mouth shall 
then be opened with praise and adoration, because Thou 
hast done all things well. You hear this sentiment of 
religious faith again in Asaph. He was sadly perplexed 
once. The poor man was plunged into a great deep, and 
he thought he would find the bottom, but he only sank 
down deeper and deeper. He was mercifully brought up 
again, but his perplexities continued until he went into 
the sanctuary of God, and there, in the exercise of relig- 
ious faith, he said, " "Well, I will give it all up ; I will 
not attempt to comprehend it, but Thou shalt guide me 
by Thy counsel, and afterwards receive me to glory. I 
will be a religious man if I cannot be a philosopher. I 
will be led as a little child by the hand of God if I can- 
not comprehend the incomprehensible." A wise man 
that. Do you not see this religious faith also in the 
prophet whose words I read to you in the lesson ? That 
" although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall 
fruit be in the vines ; the labor of the olive shall fail, 
and the fields shall yield no meat ; the flocks shall be 
cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the 
stalls " — what could be worse ? Widowhood, orphanage, 
destitution ; true, but here everything, every necessity, 
and every enjoyment — flocks, herds, fruit, everything 
gone, nothing but destitution — "Yet I will rejoice in 
the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." 

Let this truth be also impressed upon us, that all duty 
involves sacrifice in one form or other. There will be 
something to be borne, something to be endured, some- 
thing to be foregone. It is the law. God has sent us 
into the world to do something, and to do it in danger, 
in peril, in temptation, in trial and tears. This being 
so, it is a grand thing to look upon all the circumstances 
and events of life as what, indeed they are, not so much 



460 MEMOB1AL TMIBUTE8. 

important in themselves, as they are important as in- 
struments of discipline, and in relation to the man. The 
greater matter is, have we learnt the lesson ? Have we 
got out of the events of life what it was meant we should ? 
Poverty, riches, prosperity, calamity, are alike instru- 
ments to an end. The world is a great school, life is a 
grand discipline ; and we have to look rather to the 
results than to the means. 

Then there is another thing we should not for- 
get — the way in which a calamity like this calls out the 
human sympathies. Who can tell whether a far greater 
number of hearts have not been softened and bettered by 
this calamity, than have been caused to suffer by it ? 

" One touch of nature " — 

and when it comes in the shape of sorrow, one touch of 
sorrow, 

— "makes the whole world kin." 

How many a heart has been moved by the account 
of the mother, with the little babe upon her arm, whose 
husband and five sons, and a foster son — a child on whom 
they had had compassion — were under the earth, starv- 
ing, suffering, dying ! Who can tell what a sermon 
that may preach to many a soul ! It is God's teaching. 
It is Grod's picture book for us children, who continually 
need such aids — principles embodied, invisible facts. 
And so I cannot but think that much benefit results in 
this way, from these disasters, to very many. 

I know very well how Skepticism, a mechanical re- 
bellious understanding, will come up and say, " Why 
should it be ? Why should we have sin even if we have 
redemption ? Why should we have a curse even if it be 
ultimately removed ? Would it not be better just all at 
once, directly, like the angels in heaven, to come forth 



MISCELLANEOUS. 461 

from the hand of God perfect, upright, pure ! Why 
this circuitous route, the permission of sin just for the 
purpose of redemption and removal ?" Why ? I cannot 
tell all the whys, but my faith enables me to say, I believe 
it is better that things should be as they are. Without 
evil, without sin in the universe, without a personal Ee- 
deemer, without the intervention of mercy, without 
God's wonderful, manifestation of himself in relation to 
sin, and evil, and death, God's creatures could not have 
known perfectly what God is ; there could not have been 
a complete, perfect development of the Godhead. There- 
fore I do not ask that question, but I can understand 
that God tells me that by the Church, through the pro- 
cess of redemption, he is showing to the heavenly intel- 
ligence his manifold wisdom, and revealing the attri- 
butes of his character, which could be revealed in no 
other way. " Thy judgments are a great deep." Yes ; 
but out of great mystery will come ultimately a great 
manifestation, and then we shall rejoice and adore in 
the light, as we now adore in the darkness. 



SUDDEN DEATH BY A EAILWAY ACCIDENT. 

D. L. MOODY 
Otf THE DEATH OF ME. & MRS. P. P. BLISS. 

T EXPECTED to enjoy, this afternoon, coming around 
here and hearing our friend Mr. Bliss sing the gospel 
and our friend Mr. Whittle preach. I was telling my 
wife when I got home Friday night that I was really 
glad I didn't have to work so hard on this Sabbath. 
I cannot tell you what a disappointment it has been to 
me. I have looked forward to those two men of God 
coming to this city. I had arranged, made my plans to 



462 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

stay over a few days in order to hear and enjoy their ser- 
vices. Ever since I heard that I would have to take 
their place this afternoon, there has been just one text 
running in my mind. I cannot keep it out: " Therefore 
be ye also ready." You who have heard me preach the 
past three months I think will bear witness to this, thnt 
I haven't said much about death. Perhaps I haven't 
been faithful in this regard. I'd always rather tell about 
life ; perhaps there's not been warning enough in my 
preaching. But I feel that if I should hold my peace 
this afternoon and not lift up my voice and warn you to 
make ready for death, God might lay me aside and put 
some one else in my place ; I must speak and forewarn 
you. 

To-day has been one of the most solemn days in my 
life. The closing hours of every year, for the past ten 
or twelve years, have been very solemn to me. I think 
I never spent such a day as I have to-day. This world 
never seemed so empty, and men never looked so blind 
away from God, as they do to-day. It seems as never 
before that I cannot understand how life can go on in 
madness, how a man can keep away from Christ, when 
in just a stroke he is gone to eternity, and there is no 
hope. Those men I mean that really believe, intellec- 
tually, that the Bible is true, that if they die without re- 
generation, without being born again, they cannot see 
God's kingdom. How it is they can believe, and how 
they can still stay away from Christ when such judg- 
ments are brought near to them, is a mystery to me. I 
hope the words of the Lord Jesus will find their way to 
your hearts as they have to mine ; I hope you will hear 
Him this afternoon saying: "Therefore be ye also 
ready." He had been warning them ; for in the verse 
preceding this text he said, " As in the days of Noah 
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in 



MISCELLANEOUS. 463 

marriage, until the flood came and took them all away." 
It came suddenly. How often the judgments of God 
come suddenly upon us. I want to call your attention 
to a few words we find in the Old Testament in the sixth 
chapter of Jeremiah at the tenth verse : " To whom shall 
I speak and give warning that they may hear ? Behold 
their ear is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken ; 
behold the word of the Lord is unto them a reproach ; 
they have no delight in it." Also in the thirty-third 
chapter of Ezekiel, fourth, fifth and sixth verses: "Then 
whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet and taketh 
not warning, if the sword come and take him away, 
his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the 
sound of the trumpet and took not warning; his blood 
shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall 
deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword 
come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not 
warned ; if the sword come, and take any person from 
among them, he is taken away in his iniquity ; but his 
blood will I require at the watchmen's hands." Do you 
ask me now why I am so anxious to warn you ? Because, 
if I don't, the blood of your soul will be required at my 
hand. 

I want to warn you to-day ; I want to plead with you 
to-day. And it is because I love you that I come to 
plead with you. I am sure there is nothing else that 
could induce me to speak this afternoon. I felt, rather, 
like going into my room and locking the door and try- 
ing to learn what this providence means. I don't expect 
to find out yet — I'm not sure I'll ever know. But— (the 
speaker paused in deep motion), I just felt I'd got to 
comedown here this very afternoon and cry out : "there- 
fore be ye also ready !" make ready before the close of 
this sermon ! just ask yourselves this question, "am I 
ready to meet God this moment ?" If not, when will 



464 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

you be ! G-od would not tell us to be ready, if he did 
not give us the power, — unless it was something within 
our reach. 

The thought is put into some of your minds that I 
am trying to take advantage of the death of this good 
man to frighten you and scare you; and I haven't any doubt 
Satan is doing this work at this moment. Eight here 
let me notice that some say I'm preaching for effect. 
That's what I am doing. I want to affect you ; I want 
to rouse your death-sleep, when I warn you to prepare to 
meet your G-od ; for "in such hour as you think not the 
Son of Man cometh." It is just from pure love, pure 
friendship to you that I warn you ; the thought that I 
am trying to frighten you from selfish motives is from 
the pit of hell. You take a true mother ; if she does 
not warn her child when playing with fire, you say she's 
not what she professes to be, not a true mother. If a 
father sees his boy going to ruin and don't warn him, is 
he a true father ? I say it is the single power of love 
that makes me warn you. Suppose I walk by a house 
on fire with a man and woman in it, and their seven 
children. If I don't call out, hammer on the door, 
smash in the windows if necessary, and cry out, "escape 
if you can," what would you say ? You would say I 
ought not to live. If souls are going down to death and 
hell all around me — I verily believe such live to-da}^ 
and some are in this building — how can I hold my peace 
and not cry out at the top of my voice : " therefore be 
ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the 
Son of Man cometh." 

There is a legend that I read soma time ago of a man 
who made a covenant with Death ; and the covenant was 
this : that Death should not come on him unawares, — 
that Death was to give warning of his approach. Well, 
years rolled on, and at last, Death stood before his victim. 



MIS CELLANEO US. 465 

The old man blanched and faltered out, "why, Death, 
you have not been true to your promise, you have not 
kept your covenant. You promised not to come unan- 
nounced. You never gave any warning." " How, 
how \" came the answer, " every one of those gray hairs 
is a warning ; every one of your teeth is a warning ; 
your eyes growing dim are a warning; your natural 
power and vigor abated — that is a warning. Aha ! I've 
warned you — Fve warned you continually." And Death 
would not delay, but swept his victim into eternity. 

That is a legend ; but how many the past year have 
heard these warning voices. Death has come very near 
to many of us. What warnings have come to us all. 
The preacher's calls to repentance, how again and again 
they have rung in our ears. We may have one or two 
more calls yet, this year, in the next few hours, but I 
doubt it. Then how many of us in the last twelve 
months have gone to the bedside of some loved friend, 
and kneeling in silent anguish unable to help, have 
whispered a promise to meet that dying one in heaven. 
Oh why delay any longer ! Before these few lingering 
hours have gone, and the year rolls away into eternity, I 
beg of you, see to it that you prepare to make that 
promise good. Some of you have kissed the marble 
brow of a dead parent this year, and the farewell look 
of those eyes has been, " make ready to meet thy God." 
In a few years you will follow, and there may be a re- 
union in heaven. Are you ready, dear friends ? 

When visiting the body of my brother just before he 
was put in the grave, I picked up his Bible, of the size 
of this in my hand, and there was just one passage of 
scripture marked. I looked it up and I found it read ; 
" whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy 
might." As I read it that night the hand that wrote it 
was silent in death. It was written in '76. Little did 



466 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

he think when he wrote it that in that same year lie 
would be silent in the grave. Little did he think that 
the autumn wind and the winter snow would go roaring 
over his grave. Thank God it was a year of jubilee to 
him. That year he found salvation ; it was a precious 
year to his soul. That year he met his God. How 
often have I thanked God for that brother's triumphant 
death ! It seems as though I could not live to think he 
had gone down to the grave unprepared to meet his God, 
— gone without God and hope. Dear friends, — dear un- 
saved friends, — I appeal to you that you will now accept 
Christ. Seize the closing hours of this year ; let not 
this year die till the great question is decided. I plead 
with you once more to come to the Lord Jesus. Oh hear 
these blessed words of Christ as I shout them again in 
your hearing : " therefore be ye also ready." 

Now death may take us by surprise. That's the way 
it has taken our dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bliss. Little 
did they know as they rode towards Cleveland last Fri- 
day night what was to be the real end of the journey. 
About this time I was giving out notice last Friday 
night of their being here this afternoon, they were then 
struggling with death. That was about the time they 
passed into glory-land. It was a frightful death, by 
surprise. But, beautiful salvation ; star of hope in that 
time of gloom, darkness and death ; they both were 
ready. They were just ripened for the kingdom of God. 
I do not think I ever saw two persons who had grown 
more in Christ than these dear friends had in the past 
four or five years. I do not think a man walks the streets 
of Chicago to-day who has so few enemies as P. P. Bliss. 
He was a man we will love in another world. When the 
summons came, it must have been terrible, it must have 
brought cruel pain for a few minutes. But it lasted 
only a few minutes and — they were in glory. Only a 



MISCELLANEOUS. 467 

few minutes — and they were all together in that world 
of light, perhaps raising the shout of praise, "Alleluiah; 
what a Saviour." I think the heavenly choir has had a 
great accession to-day. I doubt whether many around 
the throne of God sing sweeter than P. P. Bliss. I 
doubt whether many have loved the Son of God more 
than he. With that golden harp of the glorified how 
sweetly shall he sing ! 

But my friends, while we are mourning here, are we 
ready ? We cannot call them back. We may mourn 
for them ; we may mourn for the sad misfortune that 
has befallen ourselves. But what is our loss is their 
gain. It is better for them there than here ; it is better 
to be "absent from the body, and present with the 
Lord." Shall you join him in that blessed land ? Say, 
are you ready ? 

Xow there are three things which every man should 
be ready for in this world ; ready for life, ready for death, 
and ready for judgment. Judgment after death is as 
sure as life; judgment is as sure as death. There are 
three sure things. "It is appointed unto man once to 
die, and after that the judgment." It is of very little 
account how we die, or where we die, if we are only pre- 
pared, if we are only ready. We don't know what may 
happen any day. It seems to me we ought to be ready 
any hour, any moment ; we know not what may happen 
any moment. Oh, let us get ready ! It seems sheerest 
folly to delay this matter a single moment. Look at that 
train where great numbers were ushered into eternity 
unexpectedly. Little did they think that there time was 
so near at hand. Little did our friends, Mr. Bliss and 
wife, think that they were going to be ushered into 
eternity as they stepped lighthearted on that railway 
train. It would seem that people ought to resolve never 
to step aboard a railway train again until they're ready 



468 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES, 

to meet their God. It would seem as though no one 
would lie down and go to sleep to-night until he knows 
he is ready to meet the bridegroom. 

Dear friends, are you ready ? This question this 
afternoon it seems to me ought to go down into all our 
hearts. And then, if we are ready, we can shout over 
death and the grave ; that death is overcome, the sting 
of death is gone and the grave opens terrorless. Sup- 
pose we do go on and live thirty or forty years, — it is all 
only a little moment. Suppose we die in some lone 
mountain ; like Moses on Pisgah, or like Jacob in the 
midst of our family, or like Joshua with the leaders of 
Israel around us ; or suppose God lets us die surrounded 
with the comforts and luxuries of home ; or suppose death 
comes on unexpectedly and suddenly as it did on Stephen ; 
it may be we shall be called to die the death of a martyr 
and be put to death unexpectedly — but if we are only 
ready what care we just how our summons comes. If I 
am ready I would as soon die like Stephen or Moses on Pis- 
gah. I would as soon die like our friend Mr. Bliss as 
like Jacob with all his sons around him, if only I am 
ready for my glorious inheritance beyond the grave. 
That is the main question. It is not how we die. 
It is not where we die. At the worst it may be but the 
sudden shock of a few minutes and all will be over ; and 
we enter upon eternal joy, joy for evermore. Millions 
and millions and millions of years in this world will not 
yield the joy of one minute of heaven. Oh my friends, 
shall you have a place in that heavenly home ? Oh ! 
will you not each one ask this question just now, " Am 
I ready, am I ready ?" 

I believe that every man in this Christian land has 
had some warning ; some John the Baptist to warn him 
as Herod had. some Paulas Agrippa and Felix had, some 
friend like Nathan, sent to warn him, as David had ; 



MISCELLANKO US. 469 

some friend to warn him such as Ahab had in Elijah. 
And, my friends, I think this is a day of warning to you. 
Are you not coming to God to-day ? "Will you not hear 
the Saviour's loving voice to-day, " Come unto me." God 
will forgive your sins and blot them out and give you a 
new heart. Oh, let not the sun go down to-night with- 
out being reconciled to God. 

Little did those people on that train as it neared 
Cleveland on Friday night, little did they think the sun 
was going down for them the last time, and that they 
should never see it rise again. It is going down to-night, 
— as I am speaking, the last sun of the year — and some 
of you in this assemblage may never see it rise again. 
Dear friends, are you ready for the call if it comes to you 
between now and to-morrow morning ? This very night 
you may be called away — your soul may be required by 
God your Maker. Are you ready to meet the King and 
Judge of all the earth ? Let me put, urgently but kindly, 
these questions to every soul here to-night : can you say, 
"I have Christ; I have eternal life through Jesus 
Christ my Saviour." If not, dear friends, let me ask 
you what will you say when He shall come to judge you ? 
If, this very night, He should summon you to stand be- 
fore Him, what would you say ? 

Oh, how deceitful death is ! Something may fall on 
us as we walk home to-night, or we may fall down and 
break some part of our body and be ushered into eter- 
nity. We may be seized by some fit, and we're gone. We 
may have some disease around the heart that is hidden 
from us and that we know nothing about, and this may 
be our last day on earth. "Boast not thyself of to-mor- 
row ;" we don't know what will happen even before to- 
morrow. And then, another deception ; a great many 
people, you know, because their parents have outlived 
the allotted years, because their parents were long-lived 



4?0 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

people, think they're going to live long also. How man}' 
are deceived in that way. Then there is that lying de- 
ception, " Oh it is time enough to be a Christian. — time 
enough to cry to God — when He calls us." Look at that 
wreck ! Look at those people being dashed down that 
frightful chasm to frightful deaths ! That is no time to 
get ready ; that is not the time ! They have all they 
can do trying to get out of the wreck, — bleeding, burn- 
ing, drowning, frozen ! How many in eternity in five 
minutes ! How many instantly ! No time for prayer in 
such chaos as that : I would not say God is not merciful, 
— He may have heard even then, the penitent cry ; but 
I would not dare to say : "put it off till some calamity 
overtakes you." The word comes now, at this moment, 
''prepare to meet God." "Seek first the kingdom of 
God and His righteousness." Oh, that is the first duty 
and pleasure of this life, not its last ! It is more impor- 
tant that you seek the kingdom of God to-day — just 
now, this very hour — than anything else, than anything 
else, in life ! It is more important than going home to 
look after the highest earthly affairs ; more important 
than if you could win the wealth and the honors of the 
universe! Let business be suspended and everything 
laid aside until this greatest question of life — the great- 
est question of time and eternity — is settled : <( Prepare 
to meet thy God." Oh prepare ! 

My friends, I call upon you to come to the Lord Jesus 
Christ. I call upon you to prepare this day and this 
hour to meet your God. I lift up my voice in warning 
to all of this assembly. Would you not rather be in the 
place of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss and die as they did, in that 
terrible wreck by that appalling accident — would you 
not rather choose tha u , than to live on twenty- five years 
or a hundred years, and die without God and go down 
in despair to dark rivers of eternal death ! Oh, it was 



MISCELLANEOUS. 471 

appalling ! but I would rather a thousand times have 
been on that train that dark night, and taken that awful 
leap and met my God as I believe Mr. and Mrs. Bliss 
have met Him, than to have the wealth of worlds and 
die without God and hope ! Oh, if you are not ready, 
make ready just now ! I think a great many tears should 
be shed for the sins of the past year. If you take my 
advice you will not go out of this tabernacle this night 
until you have tasted repentance and the joy of sins for- 
given. Go into the inquiry-room and ask some of the 
Christian people to tell you the way of life, to tell you 
what to do to be saved. Say " I want to be ready to 
meet my God to-night, for I don't know the day or the 
hour He may summon me." 

I may be speaking to some this afternoon who are 
hearing me for the last time. In a few days I will be 
gone. My friends, to you I want to lift up my warning- 
voice once again. I want to speak as to brethren be- 
loved, hastening on to judgment : " Prepare to meet thy 
God." I beg of you, I beseech of you, this moment, 
don't let the closing hours, these closing moments of '76 
pass, until you are born of God — born of the Spirit, born 
from death. This day, if you seek God, you shall find 
Him. This day if you, turn from sin and repent, God 
is ready to receive you. Let me say He never will be 
more willing than to-day and you'll never have more 
power than to-day. If you are ready, He is ready now 
to receive and bless you forever ! Oh, may the God of 
our fathers have compassion upon every soul assembled 
here ! May our eyes be opened, and all flee from the 
wrath to come ! May the Divine warnings take hold on 
every soul ! May we profit by this sad calamity, and 
may many be raised up in eternity to thank God that 
this meeting was ever held 1 



472 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 
J. A. GARFIELD. 

DEATH IN THE SIGHT OF ALL THE PEOPLE. 
WM. M. TAYLOR, D.D. 

IN BROADWAY TABERNACLE NEW YORK. 

They went up into Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. 
And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments, and put them on 
Eleazar his son ; and Aaron died there in the top of the Mount. — 
Numbers xx: 27, 28. 

r F<HAT is an old history ; but in some of its main fea- 
tures, it has just been repeated in the experience 
of this nation ; and so I have turned to it to find com- 
fort and instruction in our hour of sorrow. Of our be- 
loved President, too, it may be truly said that he has 
ascended the hill in the sight of all the people. His life 
has been a constant climb. From the log-cabin in the 
forest he went " still upward/" until he reached the 
highest office which can be attained among us ; and al- 
though, while he was patiently and heroically threading 
his way up the earliest slopes, he was unseen, by the 
multitudes, yet the misroscopic inspection of his antece- 
dents at the time of his nomination to the Presidency 
has made even the youngest among us familiar with his 
career from his earliest boyhood until the night when 
amid the tolling of bells and the tears of the nation, the 
sad words passed from mouth to mouth among us — 
•' The president is dead V 

We have followed him from the cabin to the school- 
house ; from the school-house to the carpenter's shop ; 
from the carpenter's shop to the canal barge ; from the 
canal barge to the academy ; from the academy to the 
college — first as a student and afterward as a professor ; 



MISCELLANEOUS. 473 

from the college to the battle-field; from the battle- 
field to the halls of legislature : from the halls of legis- 
lature to the White House ; and from the White House 
to that cottage by the sea, wherein the long alternation 
between relapse and recovery terminated in his dissolu- 
tion. No Hebrew in all the host that day when Aaron 
went up Mount Hor watched the progress of the ascend- 
ing high-priest with more interest than that with which 
we have scanned the history of Mr. Garfield ; and we 
had all a glow of honest, thankful satisfaction when we 
saw in the Presidential chair a man who might be re- 
garded as a typical representative of the best elements 
of the American character. But alas ! like Aaron, he 
reached the summit only to die ; and his death also was 
in the sight of all the people. The nation — nay, the 
world was admitted to his sick-chamber. For all these 
weeks each hand among us was upon his pulse, and each 
ear among us was at his heart. It was as if each of 
us had a beloved patient in his home. The " fierce light " 
which usually " beats upon a throne " is nothing to the 
radiant publicity into which the affection of the citizens 
insisted upon putting the incidents of that chamber of 
suspense ; and in coming years there shall yet be made 
in song and story many a pathetic mention of his heroic 
sayings and his thoughtful solicitude for those who were 
most dear to him. 

Now it is in the effects which this very publicity of 
his history and sufferings has produced, and is, I believe, 
destined in still larger measure yet to produce among 
us, that I find some of the richest elements of consola- 
tion under our sore trial. 

I. For, in the first place, that publicity has elevated 
into the view of the community a character every way 
worthy to become an example and an inspiration to us 
all. And in speaking thus, I refer not so much to the 



474 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

perseverance and indomitable pluck by which he was 
distinguished, as to the moral and spiritual qualities 
which in him were so conspicuous. He was from the 
first characterized by conscience. From the day when 
on the canal barge he refused to take by stratagem or 
trick from another boat, the right of way to which it 
was fairly entitled, on to that of the Convention in which 
he stood unyieldingly up for a principle which he 
believed to be " everlastingly right," he was unflinching 
in his adherence to that which in his view was just. 

And this conscience in him, I rejoice to add, was 
thoroughly Christianized. In his early youth he became 
on deliberate conviction, a disciple of the Lord Jcsns ; 
and in every sphere he filled, it might be said of him that 
he was "not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ." There 
was, indeed, no ostentatious parade of his devotion. He 
said little because he acted so much. His piety was that 
of principle rather than emotion ; and it was too much 
occupied in conduct to have any energy to spare for dis- 
play. He was more ambitious for excellence than for 
position. The only place he ever asked for he did not 
get, and every office which he filled was one to which he 
was called by others without any seeking of his own. 
And surely I am not wrong in saying that in the eleva- 
tion and glorification of such a character by such a 
death we have an element of comfort which is well-nigh 
incalculable. We cannot mourn for him ; for, being 
such a man as he was, -we know right well whither he 
has gone — and we may be thankful that such a career 
has been so prominently brought before the eyes of the 
rising generation among us. 

Young men, let it fire you with the noblest of all 
ambitions. Seek rather to be than to get. Labor not 
for office, but for character ; and, to that end, cultivate 
through faith in Christ a conscience that shall spurn 



MISCELLANEOUS. 475 

from it every thought of wrong \ for in conscience is the 
main-spring of character, and as you act concerning it, 
you will become either a hero or a coward. 

But it is not only in its public aspects that the history 
of our nation's second martyr is fraught with benefit 
There was a domesticity about him which strikingly il- 
lustrated the fifth commandment ; and, in a day when 
some believe that our home-life in America is degenerat- 
ing, I am thankful that he who has gone set such a 
noble example in this regard. What devotion he showed 
to his venerable mother ? Who can recall without emo- 
tion that scene with his fellow students when, camping 
out with them, he took out his Bible and said : " Boys, 
I promised my mother to read a portion of the Scriptures 
every night, and I am going to read it now — shall I read 
it aloud ?" and then, with their concurrence, not only 
read a chapter, but led them in prayer to the throne of 
the heavenly grace ? Who can speak without pleasure of 
the kiss which he imprinted on his mother's lips im- 
mediately after he had taken the oath of office on his 
installation day ? And who can read without tears the 
letter — the only one he wrote during his weeks of lan- 
guishing — to the venerable woman, that he might, with 
his own hand, give her as much hope of his recovery as 
possible ? What an example for the sons and daughters 
of the land ! Oh, ye poor, paltry puppets, who, in the 
day of your prosperity, turn your backs upon your 
parents and think of them only as a burden and a dis- 
grace — look at these beautiful indications of his filial 
devotion and go hide your heads for shame ! That in- 
stallation kiss ! let it stand out in our history forever as 
an enforcement of the holy law — " Honor thy father and 
thy mother " — and let it serve to lift up the family 
among us to its ancient elevation. 

But he was no less tender as a husband than he was 



476 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

faithful as a son. We got a glimpse of his conjugal 
devotion during the serious illness of Mrs. Garfield in 
the White House ; and the impression made then upon 
us was deepened by the telegram which he calmly 
dictated to her immediately after he was shot ; while, on 
the other hand, her noble calmness in that trying hour, 
coupled with her unslumbering watchfulness beside his 
bed, has given her a place in the nation's heart second 
only — if indeed it be second — to that in which it has 
enshrined him. While, in the bearing of Mr. Garfield 
toward his boys and his tender solicitude for his 
daughter, I feel persuaded that every father among us 
has been stimulated and benefited. How many homes in 
the land, I wonder, could bear the revelation made by 
the turning of the white electric light of publicity in 
upon them as the household of the President has done ? 
This terrible affliction has made it a spectacle to all. 
Let us be thankful that it is of such a character that it 
may be an example for all. 

But I find another element of consolation in the uni- 
fication of the nation which has resulted from the pub- 
licity in which our President lived and died. When 
Aaron was ascending Mount Hor, no jealousy was per- 
mitted to alienate the tribes of Israel from each other. 
In sight of the venerable high-priest going up to meet 
his death, the envyings of Reuben and the rebellion of 
the sons of Korah were forgotten. Israel was once more 
a unit. One great grief swallowed up and into itself all 
minor things, even as the uprising tide overwhelms all 
the pools which the last ebb has left behind ; and, in 
the thirty days of mourning which followed his dissolu- 
tion there was no exception to the universality of the 
grief ; for, as the historian tells us, " they mourned for 
Aaron, even all the house of Israel." So it is now with 
us. For the first time in many, many years there is no 



MISCELLANEOUS. 477 

section in our land to-day. North and South — their 
differences for the time forgotten — are weeping in equal 
sorrow over Garfield's bier, and it looks as if the feuds 
of a quarter of a century were to be healed and the divi- 
sions cemented by his blood. No tributes to his memory 
are more sincere than those which have been uttered 
by Southern statesmen, and no tokens of grief are 
deeper than those worn by our fellow-citizens with whom 
formerly we were at war. Now that we have wept to- 
gether, w r e shall begin to forget that we have fought. 

I think, too, that among the consolatory effects pro- 
duced by this trial I see the beginning of a spirit of in- 
dignation which shall at length sweep away the abuses 
that have gathered around that system of making pub- 
lic offices the rewards of party service which has become 
the shame of our American politics. 

Unless I greatly mistake, there has been growing all 
through these sorrowful weeks a spirit of determination 
among the people to put to death the system out of 
which this murder sprung, and woe to the public man 
who shall attempt to stay that execution ! It may take 
a long time. The struggle may be severe, for self-in- 
terest is always difficult to dislodge; but, depend upon it, 
its death-knell is rung, and the sovereign people will see 
that their will is carried through, no matter what official 
heads may be lopped off in the process. Over the bier 
of Garfield they have pledged themselves that he shall 
not die in vain, and a covenant in such blood will never 
be forgotten. The evil now has only smitten the na- 
tion's head ; it has not yet corrupted the heart. The 
universal feeling of this hour is a proof that that is 
sound ; and, when the people are in earnest, they can 
do anything. They are in earnest now. It seems to be 
the law of God's providence that no great advance can 
be secured in anything without a victim, and the value 



478 MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 

of the victim in this case is so great — for he was the best 
the nation had — that we may anticipate that the advance 
will be decided. Let us pledge ourselves by the memory 
of him at whose bedside we have stood for so many 
weeks, that, God helping us, we shall slay the system 
out of which his assassination sprung. If we do not 
succeed in doing that, it may be the assassination of the 
nation next. 

But the effects of the publicity given to our Presi- 
dent's character and death have not been confined to our 
own land. The nations have sat with us round his bed, 
and they are mourning with us now over his decease. 
Thus this calamity has brought the ends of the earth 
together, and knit the peoples in a brother-hood of be- 
reavement. From all quarters and from every land, mes- 
sages of condolence have kept pouring in upon us. In 
Great Britain, as I can testify from observation during 
my recent visit to my father-land, the President and his 
patient, self-denying wife were daily through his illness 
a source of interest to all, from the palace to the cot- 
tage. Queen Victoria never wrote anything so queenly 
as that message which came quivering over the wires to 
the stricken mourner ; for it was the queenliness of the 
woman, rather than of the monarch — the sympathy of a 
widow, speaking from her own experience, with a widow 
just entering the valley of her loneliness — " May God 
comfort you as he alone can ;" and the memorial wreath 
which she caused to be laid upon his coffin will flourish 
as an "immortelle " in the memory of this people. 

But as another element of consolation under our sor- 
row, suggested by this text, I name the continuation of 
the nation's organic life. When Lincoln was muidered 
it was the voice of Garfield which stilled the surging 
crowd in Wall Street with the words : "Fellow -citizens, 
clouds and darkness are round about him ; justice and 



MISCELLANEOUS. 479 

judgment are the habitations of his throne 

God reigns, and the government at Washington stiil 
lives.-" This is our consolation now ; and to-day, while 
we sympathize with the bereaved, and count ourselves 
among them, our prayers must also ascend for him who, 
in circumstances so solemn, and amid grief so profound, 
has been called to the duties and responsibilities of the 
Presidential chair. 

But to mention only one thought more, we have the 
largest consolation of all in the fact that God is among 
the people. Aaron did not take with him the pillar of 
cloud and fire. The shechinah still hovered above the 
mercy-seat, and after the days of mourning for the high- 
priest were ended, Jehovah was as much the leader of 
Israel as He had been before. No individual is indis- 
pensable. It is as easy for God to carry on His work 
without us as with us, if only He be recognized and 
honored by those who remain behind. All individuals 
are but His instruments; and all instruments may be 
made alike mighty in his hands. Let us be only sure 
that God is with us and all will be well. And He will 
be with us if we will be with Him. As Lincoln said, 
when one spoke to him of the importance of having 
God on our side — " The great thing for us is to make 
sure that we are on God's side ;" and there are many in- 
dications now among us that the people are anxiously 
desirous that this shall be the case. What spiritual as- 
pirations have been awakened in us all by the sorrows of 
these weeks, culminating in the sad climax of this day ! 
It is almost like a revival of religion over the land. 
Were ever prayers so numerous or so earnest offered as 
those which have been and are now being presented 
throughout the country ? 

So let us take heart again and sing, " God is in the 
midst of her, she shall not be moved ; God shall help us, 



480 



MEMORIAL TRIBUTES. 



and that right early." As good John "Wesley said with 
his dying breath, " The best of all is, God is with us ;" 
or as the pious Scotch woman put it in her own vernac- 
ular, " The Lord's aye to the fore !" " God lives ; 
blessed be our rock, and let the God of our salvation be 
exalted." 

For the rest our loved one sleeps in Jesus. We have 
no doubts or misgivings about him. Already he has en- 
tered into the joy of his Lord ; and great is the contrast 
between the gloom of our mourning and the gladness of 
his glory. 

A voice is heard on earth of kinsfolk weeping 

The loss of one they love ; 
But he has gone where the redeemed are keeping 

A festival above. 

The mourners throng the ways, and from the steeple 

The funeral bells toll slow ; 
But on the golden streets the holy people 

Are passing to and fro: 

And sayiug, as they meet, "Rejoice, another, 

Long waited for, is come. 
The Saviour's heart is glad, a younger brother 

Hath reached the Father's home." 



To that home may we also be admitted, in God's 
good time and way, through the merits and mediation 
of our great High-Px-iest. Amen. 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 



1. ON THE DEATH OP TWO MEMBERS OF THE EVAN- 
GELICAL ALLIANCE. 

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Evangelical 
Alliance of the United States, the following preamble and resolu- 
tions, submitted by Rev. William Adams, D.D., of New York, 
were adopted, and cordially commended to the Christian people 
of this country : 

Greatly afflicted by that mysterious Providence which has 
consigned to a watery grave Rev. Professor Pronier, of Geneva, 
and Rev. Antonio Carrasco, of Madrid, when on their home- 
ward voyage from the recent Conference in this city ; be it 

Resolved, That, cherishing with great affection the memory of 
these brethren, who endeared themselves to so many during their 
recent visit to this country, we extend to their desolate families, 
in this sudden and terrible bereavement, our tenderest Christian 
sympathy. 

As an expression of this affection and sympathy, and in cordial 
obedience to the Divine teaching, to " love not in word only, 
but in deed and in truth," be it 

Resolved, That this Alliance, so far adopting under its care 
the widowed and orphaned families of these beloved brethren, 
will undertake to raise a memorial fund, to be held by the 
Finance Committee of the Evangelical Alliance in this country, 
who shall be empowered to expend the same or its (semi-annual) 
income, according to their best judgment, for the support of 
Mesdames Pronier and Carrasco and the education of their 
children. 

Resolved, That all churches sympathizing with the Evangeli- 
cal Alliance, be hereby requested to take a collection on the 
third Sabbath in January, or as near that time as possible, in 
furtherance of this object ; confident that such an act will not 

21 [481] 



482 MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 

only convey needful relief to the distressed, but will prove a 
means of promoting a new and greater interest in Christian 
brotherhood and Christian evangelism throughout the world. 



2. ON THE DEATH OF A BISHOP AND COLLEGE 
PRESIDENT. 

By the University Senate of Ann Arbor University, Mich. 

At a meeting of the University Senate, held in the room of the 
President, August 5, 1881, the following testimonial of respect 
for the memory of Dr. E. 0. Haven, Ex-President of the Univer- 
sity, was ordered to be placed on the records of the Senate. It 
was also ordered that copies should be sent to the family of the 
deceased and furnished to the press for publication : 

Rev. Erastus O. Haven, D.D., Bishop in the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church, and an Ex-President of this University, died at 
Salem, Oregon, on the second day of August, 1881. 

Dr Haven held the chair of the Latin language and literature 
in this University in 1853, and that of history and English litera- 
ture in 1854 and 1855, and the office of President of the Univer- 
sity from 1863 to 1869. 

This Senate has received with profound grief the intelligence 
of his death. Cut down suddenly, almost at the beginning of 
the sacred duties of the high and responsible office to which he 
had been called by the church of his choice, while still strong 
and vigorous, and, to all appearance, capable of doing good 
service in the cause of his Master for many years to come, he has 
left a record of great and manifold and fruitful labors to per- 
petuate his memory, and to console the multitude of friends, 
brethren, and associates who mourn his loss. 

The uninterrupted successes of his life, from the day of his 
graduation at Middietown to the day of his death in Oregon, 
were due to his unwavering faith in Christ, his indomitable 
energy, his ready adaptation to circumstances, his versatility of 
talent and breadth and variety of attainment, his prudence and 
tact in administration, and, not least, his remarkable facility 
and felicity of expression in writing, and, especially, in public 
speaking. 

He was elected to many and honorable positions, involving 
either educational, ministerial, or literary labor, but among all 
the high duties to which he was called, none did he discharge 
with more distinguished ability than those of the presidency of 
this University. During the six years of his administration the 
attendance of undergraduates was constantly increasing, while 
the institution was steadily progressing in its proper work, and 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 483 

growing in popular favor. Not less was his administration dis- 
tinguished for the internal harmony and unity promoted by his 
large and kindly spirit, which at the same time attached all mem- 
bers of the University heartily and firmly to his person. 

This University will ever cherish and honor the memory of 
President Haven, and while it mourns his death it is thankful 
for the good which a kind Providence has permitted him to 
achieve not only here but in many fields of beneficent enter- 
prise. 

The Senate, while thus expressing its sense of the loss sus- 
tained by education and religion in the death of Bishop Haven, 
desires most sincerely and respectfully to extend its sympathies 
to the family, so suddenly visited by a mysterious but wise and 
merciful Providence with this great sorrow and heaviest of 
earthly bereavements. 

By order of the Senate. 

, Secretary. 



3. ON THE DEATH OF A COLLEGE PROFESSOR. 

At a meeting of the Faculty of Brown University, held Febru- 
ary 17th, the President announced the death of William Giles 
Goddard, formerly Professor of Moral Philosophy and Metaphy- 
sics, and more recently of Belles Lettres, in the University, and, 
at the time of his death, a member of the Board of Fellows, and 
Secretary of the Corporation. 

Whereupon, the following preamble and resolutions were 
unanimously adopted, and ordered to be entered upon the records 
of the Faculty : 

It having pleased Almighty God to remove from this life 
William Giles Goddard, LL.D., a distinguished Alumnus of this 
University, for many years one of its most successful instruc- 
tors, and through life one of its most efficient friends, a gentle- 
man eminent alike for rich and varied learning, elegant scholar- 
ship and refined taste, as well as for high attainment in all the 
graces of pure Christianity and enlarged philanthropy : 

Resolved, That we cherish a profound veneration for the 
talents, virtues and services of our late associate and friend. 

That we tender to the family of the deceased the expression of 
our sincere sympathy on the occasion of their irreparable loss. 

That, as a Faculty, we will attend the funeral solemnities, 
and that the exercises of the College be suspended on the after- 
noon of the day on which they take place. 

That the President of the University be requested to deliver a 



484 MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 

discourse in commemoration of the life and services of Professor 
Goddard; and 

That a copy of these resolutions be presented to the family of 
the deceased, and published in one of the papers of this city. 

P. WAYLAND, President. 



4. ON THE DEATH OF A PASTOR. 

At a special meeting of the official board of the church, 

held June 28th, the following preamble and resolutions were 
unanimously adopted ; 

Whereas, in the order of Divine Providence, our pastor, Rev. 
- has been removed from our midst by the hand of death, 



and our hearts have been deeply moved thereby ; therefore, 

Resolved, 1. That in his death we have lost one of nature's 
nobleman, a generous friend, a genial companion ; a man of true 
and honest purpose, of pure mind, of sound judgment, prompt 
in action, faithful in matters of trust, an earnest Christian 
worker, and an ardent lover of Methodism. 

2. That we treasure the memory of his blameless Christian 
life, his wise counsels, his faithful warnings, and his zeal for the 
cause of Christ. 

3. That from the manner of his life among us, and from the 
positive character of his Christian experience and testimony dur- 
ing his illness, we are fully persuaded that our loss is his eternal 
gain ; and that while we are mourning on earth, he is rejoicing 
with the redeemed and blood-washed in heaven. 

4. That we deeply sympathize with the widow and children, 
who have been called to part with their chief earthly counsellor 
and support, and that we earnestly beseech the Father in Heaven 
to grant them the consolation they so much need, and which he 
alone can give. 

5. That we tender to the widow the use of the parsonage, and 
the salary her husband would have received, for the remaining 
part of the conference year. 

6. That a copy of these resolutions be tendered to the family 
of the deceased, that they be published in The Christian Advo- 
cate, and recorded on the minutes of the quarterly conference. 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 485 



5. ON THE DEATH OF A MEMBER OF THE SCHOOL 
BOARD. 

At a meeting of the School Committee of the city of Provi- 
dence, R. I., holden at the City Council Chamber, on Friday, 
the 20th of February, on the announcement by the President, 
the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted 
and ordered to be placed upon the records : 

Whereas, it has pleased the Disposer of all events suddenly to 

remove from this life , Esq., who has been for the last 

nine years a member of this body; who cherished with equal 
ardor the interests of popular education and those of refined 
literature; and who was ever ready with his matured counsel, 
his liberal hand and his gifted pen, to co-operate with his fellow 
citizens in every enterprise for the advancement of good morals 
and social improvement ; therefore, 

Resolved, That in the death of Mr. this Committee has 

lost one of its most judicious and efficient members, the city one 
of its worthiest and most accomplished citizens, and elegant 
learning one of its greatest ornaments. 

Resolved, That we tender to the family of the deceased our 
unaffected sympathy and condolence in this their most afflictive 
bereavement. 

Resolved, That as a tribute of respect to the memory of our 
lamented associate — a tribute demanded alike by his eminent 
private virtues and public worth — we will, in a body, attend the 
funeral solemnities, which are to take place this day. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, signed by the 
President and Secretary, be communicated to the family of the 
deceased, and that the same be published in the newspapers of 
this city. , Secretary. 



6. ON THE DEATH OF AN EDITOR. 

Whereas, It has pleased the Great Head of the Church to le- 
move, recently, another of His workmen from the field of his 
earthly labor to His nearer presence and eternal rest, our beloved 
brother, Rev. Wm. S. Baird, late Editor of the Baltimore Episco- 
pal Methodist, therefore, 

Resolved, 1. That we recognize with feelings of sadness the 
inroads of death upon the ranks of the ministry in our midst, and 



486 MEMORIAL RESOL UT1 ONS. 

the loss which the Church sustains in the vacancy of the im- 
portant post of usefulness so recently filled by Brother Baird. 

Resolved, 2. That we will cherish the pleasing recollection of 
his active service in the Redeemer's cause, and of his fervent 
piety and unsullied life ; and that it shall be our aim to follow 
him as he followed Christ. 

Resolved, 3. That our sorrow at the separation from one so 
long and so highly esteemed is softened by the joy of the assur- 
ance that in departing he has gone " to be with Christ, which is 
far better." 

Resolved, 4. That we offer to the bereft members of the family 
of our deceased brother out sincere condolence ; and for them 
our earnest prayer is, that He who has promised to be the Father 
of the fatherless and the husband of the widow, may afford them 
gracious consolation. 

Resolved, 5. That the Secretary of this Conference be in- 
structed to furnish for publication in the Baltimore Episcopal 
Methodist a copy of the foregoing resolutions. 



7. ON THE DEATH OF A PUBLISHER. 

At a special meeting of the Book Trade of New York, on 
motion, Messrs. Seymour, Randolph, and Hurd were appointed 
a Committee on Resolutions, who reported the following : 

Resolved, That we have received the announcement of the 
death of John Harper with the most profound sorrow. 

Resolved, That in him our trade mourns its oldest as well as 
one of its most respected and honored members, and the business 
community in general a representative man, one whose long and 
distinguished career has ideiY ified his name with the history of 
our city, and done much to establish and maintain its reputation 
as the literary centre of our country. The record of diligence, 
industry, steadfast perseverance, thrift, and economy which 
marked his earlier years remains for the imitation of those who 
are entering upon business life. The determination with which 
he met and triumphed over almost overwhelming disaster stands 
as an encouragement to any who may be struggling with adver- 
sity. His unswerving love of country has our praise. We re- 
cognize the skill and foresight which he displayed in the prose- 
cution of the large business in the control of which he took such 
a prominent part for so long a series of years. We should emu- 
late his untiring energy and imitate the strict honor which 
marked his transactions, while his unfailing kindness of heart 
has our grateful remembrance. 

Resolved, That we close our respective places of business 



MEMO EI A L MES OL UTIONS. 487 

during the hours of the funeral, and that we attend the services 
in a body. 

Resolved, That we extend to the business associates and to the 
family of the deceased our sincere sympathy in their bereave- 
ment,' and that the Secretary be instructed to send them a copy 
of these resolutions. 



8. ON THE DEATH OF A PHYSICIAN. 

By a Medical Association. 

Inasmuch as death has suddenly removed from our midst our 
highly esteemed and much beloved brother, Gr. H. H., M.D., 
while in the prime of life, apparently in the vigor of perfect 
health, in the crowning success of his cherished profession, in 
the unfeigned love of a large and rapidly increasing circle of 
friends, in the exalted appreciation of his patients, and in the 
unsullied respect and confidence of his church ; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we have lost one whose presence in memory we 
shall ever be proud to recall as an active and zealous member of 
this Association, and an honor to its medical status, and an ex- 
ample to its associates of pure friendship, noble generosity and 
true manliness. 

Resolved, That the medical profession at large have sustained 
m his death the loss of one whose qualities may be feebly 
grouped as the working, sympathizing, skillful, and gentlemanly 
physician. 

Resolved, That the community in which he immediately 
moved have reason to bow in humble sorrow at the loss of a noble 
and exemplary citizen, a faithful friend, a respected physician, 
an ornament to the church, and a fit example of morality. 

Resolved, That we deeply sympathize with the grief-stricken 
family of our deceased friend, and assure them of the sincere 
fellow-feeling of all who knew of their great affliction. 

Resolved, That in his sudden and unexpected death we deeply 
realize the shortness and uncertainty of life, and would learn 
afresh the lesson that we, like him, should so live that we* may 
not be afraid to die. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the 
family of the deceased, and also to the medical periodicals of 
this city for publication. 

, Committee. 



488 MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 



9. ON THE DEATH OF A PRESIDENT OF A BOARD OF 
TRUSTEES. 

A special meeting of the Board of Trustees of St. James M. E. 
Church was held in the Chapel on Wednesday evening, May 2d, 
1877. 

On motion, Brother D. J. D. was called to the chair. 

The object of the meeting having been stated, the following 
resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

The Board of Trustees of St. James M. E. Church, desiring to 
attest their sense of the loss sustained by this church in the death 
of their late President, H. H. G., their appreciation of his char- 
acter, and their sympathy with his family, here record the follow- 
ing minute : 

Resolved, That the death of our beloved brother, in the prime 
of his years and usefulness, is a dispensation of affliction incapa- 
ble of consolation otherwise than by humble faith in the Om- 
niscient One, who is " too wise to err, too good to be unkind." 

Resolved, That our departed brother was endeared to his 
official associates by his unfailing generosity, kindness and 
geniality, and to the entire church by his effective service and 
active benevolence ; that his earnest Christian life is an assurance 
to us that our sudden loss is his endless gain. 

Resolved, That we tender our sincerest sympathy to his 
esteemed wife and family, praying that in this hour of sore 
affliction they maj r find the Saviour near, and that ' ' they may 
put their trust under the shadow of His wings." 

Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to transmit a copy of 
the foregoing resolutions to the family of our late President. 

, Secretary. 



10. ON THE DEATH OF A KNIGHT TEMPLAR. 

In Memoriam — Sir Knight . Commandery , Knights 

Templars, in conclave assembled, having heard of the death of 

our late companion, Sir Knight , desire to place on record 

an expression of their deep sorrow for the loss they have sus- 
tained by his death, and the great esteem in which Sir Knight 

was held by the members of this Commandery, and to 

bear testimony of our high appreciation of his Christian charac- 
ter as a Knight Templar, and do hereby 

Resolve, That the unsearchable wisdom of the Grand Master, 
the Templars' God, has called him to the asylum of rest. 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 489 

That we have unbounded faith in the safety of his Divine 
Power, by whose life our dead shall live. 

That we tender our sympathy to his widow and children in 
their sorrow, and assure them of our love for their husband and 
father, who being dead is yet alive. 

That a copy of this testimonial be recorded on a full page of 
our Book of Record, and be also suitably engrossed and sent to 
the family of our deceased companion. 

, Committee. 



11. RESOLUTIONS PASSED BY A MASONIC LODGE, 
COMMEMORATIVE OF THEIR LATE PAST MASTER. 

Whereas, By the sudden and unexpected death of our Past 
Master, G. H. H., Lodge has suffered a great and irrepar- 
able loss. 

Resolved, That as an officer of the Lodge he faithfully and 
efficiently performed his work, displaying administrative quali- 
ties of a high order as a presiding officer, and commanding our 
respect and confidence by liis impartiality and fairness. 

Resolved, That he had endeared himself to us all by his genial, 
open-hearted and social disposition ; that he was ever the kind 
and generous friend, the wise counsellor and devoted brother, 
and that in his death each member of Bunting Lodge mourns a 
personal friend. 

Resolved, That it is not alone the recollection of his qualities 
as a Mason that we shall cherish with affectionate regard, but as 
an upright man he had entrenched himself in the hearts of tins 
community, and the fond remembrance in which he is held 
by all will form the silver lining to the dark cloud which hangs 
over us. 

Resolved, That, recognizing the depth of sorrow in which his 
family are plunged we extend them our heartfelt sympathy, 
commending them to the Supreme Architect on high, who 
maketh all things work together for good to those who love 
Him. 

, Committee. 



12. ON THE DEATH OF A FREEMASON. 

Whereas, it has pleased the Supreme Architect of the Universe 
to summon from this terrestrial Lodge of F. & A. M., to the 
Grand Lodge on high, our beloved Right Worshipful Brother, 
whose faultless record, Christian character, genial nature, charit- 

21* 



490 



MEMORIAL RESOL UTI0N8. 



able and generous spirit, together with an earnest zeal, and un- 
tiring devotion in the interests of Lodge No. — , developed in 
our hearts for him the profoundest sentiments of affectionate 
regard and brotherly love. 

Therefore, be it Resolved, That while we reverently and de- 
voutly bow, in obedience to the behests of that being whose* 
ways are inscrutable and who doeth all things well, in removing 
from this life our deceased brother, we desire to express our 
deep sense of the irreparable loss sustained in the death of one 
who, with eloquent tongue and exemplary life, always fittingly 
and impressively illustrated the cardinal principles that consti- 
tute the foundation stones upon which the grand superstructure 
of Freemasonry stands. 

Resolved, That we share deeply in the sorrow of the widow, 
the children, and the relatives of our deceased brother, and 
hereby tender to them our heartfelt sympathy, and commend 
them to the loving and tender care of him who has promised to 
be a " Father to the fatherless," and a "Helper to the widow. 1 ' 

Resolved, That this Lodge be suitably draped in mourning, as 
an expression of the grief we feel for the loss of our beloved 
brother and faithful Worshipful Master. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon the minutes, 
and that an engrossed copy of the same be transmitted to the 
widow of our deceased brother. 



13. ON THE DEATH OF A MILITARY OEFICER. 

At a meeting of the resident members of the Third Army 
Corps Union, held in New York, September 16, the following- 
preamble and resolutions were adopted : 

Whereas, The Third Army Corps Union has heard with deep 
regret of the sudden and untimely ending of the life of our much 

beloved and esteemed comrade, Captain , while in the 

discharge of his duty; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That this sad accident has taken from us a comrade 
and companion who possessed rare virtues. He united intelli- 
gence with great courage, which, together with an earnest desire 
to do his whole duty, made him a most valuable and efficient 
public officer. He was a true and devoted husband, a fond and 
loving father. His wife and children honored and loved him. 
He endeared himself to all who came in contact with him by his 
honest, manly and straightforward conduct. He contributed 
his full share in aiding us in our deliberations when considering 
the welfare of our cherished organization. 

Resolved, That in the death of our late comrade the Third 
Army Corps Union has sustained a loss of one of its most valued 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 491 

members, whose genial smile and cordial greeting was one of the 
promised gems of each "Diamond" reunion, and who, though 
at roll call missing, will hereafter be recorded amongst our clus- 
ter of heroes who willingly sacrificed life in the performance of 
duty. 

Kesolved, That in this their hour of trial and affliction, we ten- 
der to his bereaved family our heartfelt sympathy. 

Resolved, That as a mark of respect the members of the Third 
Army Corps Union resident in this city attend his funeral in a 
body and follow the remains of our beloved comrade to their last 
resting-place. 

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions, suitably engrossed, 
be furnished to the family of the deceased, and that the same be 
forwarded to the secretary for record on the minutes of our 
association. 

, Chairman. 



14. ON THE DEATH OF A DIRECTOR. 

At a special meeting of the Directors of this Company, the 

following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, It has pleased the Almighty, in his profound wisdom, 
to remove from our midst, so suddenly, our highly-honored and 
beloved friend ; therefore, be it 

Resolved, That we sincerely and deeply sympathize with the 
family and friends of the departed in their so unexpected and 
severe bereavement, and that we implore kind Providence to 
comfort them in this their hour of trial. 

Resolved, That we express our heartfelt and most solemn 
regret at the loss of a gentleman so worthy of the highest honor 
and esteem among the commercial community, so devotedly be- 
loved by his friends, tenderly attached to his family, and who 
for so many years, at the head of one of our first importing 
houses, by his strict probity and untiring industry, successfully 
weathered the many storms which swept from time to time with 
ruinous consequences over our industrial enterprises. 

Resolved, That as a token of the high esteem and respect for 
the departed, the Directors of this Company attend the funeral 
of the deceased in a body. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be engrossed and handed to 
the family, with the deepest and sincerest regards, and the same 
be published in the several daily papers. 



492 MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 



15. ON THE DEATH OF A FIREMAN. 

At a meeting of the officers of companies of the Fourth bat- 
talion, held on the 15th inst., the following preamble and resolu- 
tions were unanimously adopted : 

Whereas, we have received the painful intelligence of the un- 
timely death of our Chief of Battalion ; be it, therefore 

Resolved, That while we bow with submission to the will of 
an allwise Providence, it is due that we take this method of 
showing our appreciation of one who in the discharge of his 
every duty, requiring on all occasions the stern qualities of a 
disciplinarian, always possessed the noble instincts of a gentle- 
man. 

Resolved, That in the death of Chief we are deprived 

of a genial associate, a brave commander, and the Fire Depart- 
ment one of its most faithful officers. 

Resolved, That we tender to the family of the deceased our 
sympathy in their bereavement, and would console them with 
the belief that their loss is his gain, and he who doeth all things 
well has taken him to the home of eternal happiness. 

Resolved, That out of respect to his memory we attend the 
funeral and wear a badge of mourning for thirty days ; also, that 
a copy of these resolutions be transmitted to the family. 



16. ON THE DEATH OF A DIRECTOR OF AN 
ATHENAEUM. 

Whereas, an inscrutable Providence has suddenly removed 
from among us a member of this Board, from its organization, 
until his recent resignation, the Vice-President of this institu- 
tion, and one of its principal founders ; therefore, 

Resolved, That we deeply lament the loss which we have sus- 
tained in the death of one whose enlightened zeal and liberal and 
active exertions contributed to lay so broad and deep the founda- 
tion of this institution, and whose continued care and labor 
have been unceasing for the promotion of its usefulness and 
prosperity. 

Resolved, That in placing upon record an expression of our 
sorrow at this afflictive bereavement, we cannot do justice to our 
feelings by a mere compliance with the forms which custom has 
prescribed. Such an expression would be far too inadequate to 
the occasion. Whilst we mourn the loss of a founder and a 
benefactor, we feel that by his death this community has lost 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 493 

one of its most valuable and patriotic citizens, a firm friend of 
constitutional freedom, whose mind, of rich scholarship, rare 
accomplishments and practical wisdom, was ever devoted to the 
cause of literature and science, and to the great work of social 
improvement. 

Resolved, That the Secretary be directed to communicate a 
certified copy of these resolutions to the family of the deceased, 
as expressive of our sympathy in their deep affliction. 

Resolved, That these resolutions be entered upon the records 
of the Board, and be published. 

, Secretary. 



17. ON THE DEATH OF A MEMBER OF A LITERARY 
SOCIETY. (Keystone State Normal School.) 

Whereas, the hand of Providence has removed our beloved 
sister from the scene of her temporal labors, and from our society, 
and in view of the loss we have sustained by the death of our 
friend and sister, and of the still greater loss sustained b} r those 
who were nearest and dearest to her, be it 

Resolved, That we deeply mourn her untimely departure, and 
sincerely regret the loss of her faithful services as a co-laborer in 
our literary enterprise, taking refuge in the thought, however, 
that after having ended her earthly strife she has at last joined 
the blessed society of the redeemed in heaven. 

Resolved, That we tender our earnest and heartfelt sympathies 
to the afflicted family, and commend them for consolation to Him 
who orders all things for the best, and whose chastisements are 
dealt by a loving hand. 

Resolved, That we do honor to her memory by having her 
name arrayed in black on the roll, and by performing all the rites 
due on so solemn an occasion. 

Resolved, That the above resolutions be published in the 
National Weekly Educator, that a copy thereof be placed in 
the archives of the society and another sent to the parents of 
the deceased. 

, Committee. 



18. ON THE DEATH OF A STUDENT. 

At a meeting of the St. Paul's School, 

Concord, Mass., the following resolutions were drafted : 

Since it has pleased Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, in 



494 MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS. 

His Providence, to remove our friend and classmate, L. F. W., 
from among us by death, we desire to place on record our sense 
of his true worth, and of the great loss and affliction the school 
and we ourselves, as well as his relatives and family, have sus- 
tained, and we accordingly 

Resolve, That we unanimously join in the expression of our 
affectionate regard for one who so long as he has been here has 
led a blameless, studious life, been pure and reverend in word 
and deed, and to the best of our knowledge and belief abstained 
from every wrong way. That we thank God for the example 
which he set before us, and pray that we may have grace both as 
boys and men to follow it, that we may reach the same happy 
rest which we believe he has now entered. 

Asking the Divine blessing upon the school and ourselves in 
particular under this bereavement, the undersigned append their 
names in behalf of the school. 



LIST OF AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS. 



PAGB 

Anonymous 43 

Armitage, Thomas, D.D. . 258 

Beecher, Rev. Henry 

Ward 47 

Bangs, Nathan, D.D 374 

Betts, Rev. Robert Wye. . 57 

Bibby, Rev. Albert 406 

Binney, Rev. Thomas 168, 286, 

453 

Bonar, Rev. Andrew R. 220, 241 

Brown, Rev. Archibald G. 206 

Bruce, John, D.D 33 

Burder, Rev. H. F 257 

Cattley, Rev. M. A.. . 448 

Clayton, Rev. George 280 

Cole, Rev. Thomas J 260 

dimming, John, D. D.200, 400 
Curler, Theo. L., D.D. 35, 294 

Davis, Rev. Wesley R 365 

Deems, C. F., D.D 196 

Dickson, Alexander, D.D. 

238, 245 

Dix, Morgan, D.D 208 

Dykes, J. Oswald, D.D. . 82 

Ellaby, Rev. Francis, B.A. 125 
Evans, Chas. A 50 

Farrar, Canon, F. W 204 



PAGE 

Fletcher, Alex., D.D. . . . 442 

Forsyth, Rev. W 31 

Fowler, Rev. C. H., D.D., 

LL.D 381 

Fisher, Rev. George P 349 

Gasquoine, Rev. T 13 

Gebler, Rev 24 

Gibson, Rev. R 142 

Graham, Wm., D.D 26 

Guthrie, Thomas.D.D. 302,262 
G wither, Rev. James Henry 160 

Hall, John, D.D 227 

Hamilton, James, D.D ... 78 
Haslegrave, Rev. Joseph. 89 
Hitchcock, Roswell D., 

D.D 253 

Hodge, Charles, D.D 193 

Horwood, Rev. W. D. 97, 154 

Howard, J. M., D.D 215 

Hughes, Hugh, D.D 424 

Hughes, Rev. James 101 

Hunt, Albert S., D.D. . . . 393 
Hyatt, Rev. Charles 331 

Ingram, Rev. Geo. S 307 

Jay, Rev. Wm 202 

Jerdan, Rev. Charles .... 76 

Landels, William, D.D. 236, 283 
[495] 



496 LIST OF AUTHORS AND CONTRIBUTORS. 



PA0B 

Liddon, Canon H.P., D.D. 290 
Lincoln, Rev. Varnum. . . 15 
Lord, Rev. A. E 130 

Macdonna, Rev. John H. . 274 
Macduff, J. R, D.D... 37,191 

McCree, Rev. J. W 21 

Macgregor, Rev. G. D . . . 23 
McClintock, John, D.D. 

LL.D 401 

McElrov, J., D.D 212 

Melvill, Canon H. . . . 210, 270 

Moody, D. L 461 

Moore, Rev. Daniel, 217, 

225, 249 
Murray, Rev. Jas., M.A. . 419 

Newton, John 373 

Orme, Rev. G 18 

Ormiston, William, D.D., 
LL.D 188 

Parsons, Rev. James 254 

Parsons, Rev. Edward. . . 318 
Paxton, Wm. ML, D.D. . . 80 
Plumer, Wm. S., D.D. 

LL.D 410 

Punshon, Rev. Wm. Mor- 

ley 85 



PASS 

Raffles, T., D.D., LL.D. 313, 
323 

Rees, Rev. Geo. E 437 

Robertson, Rev. A. S 14 

Rodwell, Rev. W 72 

Sanderson, J., D.D 17, 20 

Scudder, Henry M., D.D. 271 
Spring, Gardiner, D.D. . . . 256 
Spurgeon, Rev. C. H. 

430, 230, 263, 265 

Smith, Rev. Thornley 28 

Smith, Rev. James 115 

Stanley, A. P. (Dean), 

D.D 198 

Sprague, William, D.D. . . 190 
Stowell, Canon Hugh 278 



D.D 195 

Taylor, W. J. R., D.D... 341 
Tavlor, Wm. M., D.D 40, 472 

Thomas, Rev. U. R 266 

Thomas, David, D.D. 276, 298, 

Todd, John, D.D 268 

Wagstaff, Rev. F 74 

Wayland, Francis, D.D... 356 

Williams, W. R, D.D. ... 222 

Williams, Rev. B. W 233 



TEXTUAL INDEX. 



PAGE 

Gen. xlii : 13. And one is not 18 

Gen. xMii : 21. Behold I die, but God shall be with you. . . . 257 

Gen. xlix : 18. I have waited for thy salvation, O, Lord 220 

Gen. 1 : 24. I die and God will surely visit you 227 

Num. xxiii : 10. Let me die the death of the righteous, &e . . 208 
Deut. iii : 25, 27. I pray thee let me go over and see the good 
land that is beyond Jordan. . . .Thou shalt not go over 

this Jordan 26 

Deut. iii : 25. I pray thee let me go over and see the good 
land that is bevond Jordan, that goodlv mountain and 

Lebanon " 331 

Joshua i : 11. Prepare your victuals ; for within three days 

ye shall pass over this Jordan 245 

Joshua iii : 17. And the priests that bare the Ark of the 
Covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the 

midst of Jordan 195 

2 Sam. iii : 38. A great man fallen this day in Israel 260 

2 Sam. xii : 23. Can I bring him back again ? I shall go to 
him, but he shall not return to me 40 

1 Kings xxi : 13. And there came in two men, children of 

Belial, and sat before him ; and the men of Belial 
witnessed against him, even against Naboth, in the 
presence of tne people, saying, Xaboth did blaspheme 
God and the King. Then they carried him forth out 
of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died 424 

2 Sam. xii : 23. I shall go to him, but he shall not return to 

me 15 

1 Kings vii : 22. Upon the top of the pillars was lily work. . . 365 

1 Kings xiv : 13. Because in him there is found some good 

thing toward the Lord God of Israel 57 

2 Kings iv : 20. He sat on her knees till noon, and then died. 31 
2 Kinirs iv : 26. Is it well with the child ? And she answered, 

It is well 33 

Job v : 26. Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age like 

as a shock of corn cometh in, in his season 265 

[497] 



498 TEXTUAL INDEX. 

PA.GB 

Job xiv : 14. Shall he live again ? 268 

Job xvi : 22. When a few years are come, then I shall go 

the way whence I shall not return 274 

Job xviii : 14. The King of terrors ... 233 

Job xxx : 23. I know thou wilt bring me to death, &c 200 

Job xxxviii : 17. Have the gates of death been opened unto 
thee ? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of 

death ? 298 

Job xix : 26, 27. And though after my skin worms destroy 
this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God ; whom I shall 
see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold and not an- 
other ; though my reins be consumed within me 303 

Job xix : 25, 26. I know . . . that in my flesh shall I 

see God 318 

Ps. xxiii : 4. Yea, though I walk through the valley, &c 191 

Ps. xxxvi : 6. Thy judgments are a great deep 453 

Ps. xxxix : 4. Lord, make me know mine end, and the 
measure of my days, what it is ; that I may know how 

frail I am 125 

Ps. lxxi : 5. Thou art my trust from my 3 r outh. 21 

Ps. xc : 9. We spend our years as a tale that is told 76 

Ps. xc : 9. We spend our years as a tale that is told 80 

Ps.xc: 12. So teach us to number our days that we may 

apply our hearts unto wisdom 323 

Ps. cxvi : 15. Precious in the sight of the Lord, is the death 

of his saints 215 

Eccles. iii : 4. A time to mourn 442 

Eccles. vii : 1. The day of death is better than the day of 

one's birth 307 

Eccles. vii : 1. A good name is better than precious oint- 
ment and the day of death than the day of one's birth 230 

Eccles. viii : 10. And so I saw the wicked buried, who had 
come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were 
forgotten in the city, where they had so done ; this is 

also vanity ." 430 

Eccles. viii : 8. There is no discharge in that war 266 

Eccles. viii : 8. There is no discharge in that war 222 

Eccles. xii : 7. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it 

was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it 271 

Cant, viii : 6. Love is strong as death 206 

Isa. xi : 6. A little child shall lead them 43 

Isa. xl : 2. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto 

her that her warfare is accomplished 280 

Isa. xl : 6. The voice said cry, and he said what shall I cry ? 

All flesh is grass, &c 313 

Isa. xl : 7. The flower fadeth, because the spirit of the Lord 

bloweth upon it 101 

I^a. xl : 8. The grass wit hereto, the flower fadeth, but the 
word of our God shall stand for ever 290 



TEXTUAL INDEX. 499 

PAGE 

Isa. lvii : 2. He shall enter into peace ; they shall rest in 

their beds, each one walking in his uprightness 89 

Isa. lvii : 1, 2. The righteous is taken away from the evil to 

come, &c 37 

Isa. lxiv : 6. We all do lade as a leaf 286 

Jer. v : 31. What will ye do in the end ? 168 

Ezekiel xx : 48. And all flesh shall see that I the Lord have 

kindled it • it shall not be quenched 448 

Jer. xv : 9. Her sun is gone done while it was yet day. .... 72 
Daniel xii : 3. And they that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament ; and they that turn many to 

righteousness as the stars for ever and ever 349 

Micahvi : 9. Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. . . 23 
Zech. i : 5. Your fathers, where are they ? and the prophets, 

do they live forever ? 286 

Matt, ii : 18. Rachel weeping for her children 14 

Matt, xviii : 2. Jesus called a little child unto him and set 

him in the midst of them 35 

Matt, xviii : 14. It is not the will of your father which is in 

heaven that one of these little ones should perish 13 

Matt, xxiv : 8. To what purpose is this waste ? 20 

Matt, xxv : 21. Well done, thou good and faithful servant, &c. 193 
Matt, xxvi : 24. It had been good for that man if he had not 

been born 410 

Matt, xxviii : 8. They departed quickly from the sepulcher 

with fear and great joy, &c 238 

Mark iv: 28. First the blade 57 

Mark v : 39. The damsel is not dead but sleepeth 74 

Mark xvi : 6. Behold the place where they laid him 210 

Lukevii: 11—17. And it came to pass the day after that he 

went into a city called Nain, &c 24 

Lukevii: 12. Behold there was a dead man carried out, 

the only son of his mother, and she was a widow 154 

Lukevii: 13. When the Lord saw her he had compassion 

on her, and said unto her, weep not 82 

Luke vii: 14. Young mau, 1 say unto thee, arise 78 

Luke xviii: 17 Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of 

God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein 50 

Luke xx : 36. Neither can they die any more ; for they are 

equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being 

the children of the resurrection 28 

Luke xxvi: 34. The Lord is risen indeed 258 

John v: 35. He was a burning and a shining light, and ye 

were willing for a season to rejoice in his light .♦ 341 

John xi: 25. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and 

the life 85 

John xi: 25. I am the resurrection and the life 256 

John xvii : 24. Father, I will that those also whom thou hast 

given me be with me, &c 212 

Rom. viii: 21. The creature itself also shall be delivered 

from the bondage of corruption 204 



500 TEXTUAL INDEX. 

PAGE 

1 Cor. xvy 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we 

are of all men most miserable 419 

Rom. xiv : 7. ISTo man dieth unto himself 196 

j. Cor. xv : 21. For since by man come death, by man came 

also the resurrection of the dead = 278 

1 Cor. xv : 35, 36. How are the dead raised up, &c 270 

1 Cor. xv : 56, 57. The sting of death is sin and the strengh 
of sin is the law; but thanks be to God which giveth us 

the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 263 

1 Cor. xv : 57. Thanks be to Cod which giveth us the vic- 
tory, &c 202 

Phil, i: 21. To live is Christ and to die is gain 198 

Phil, i: 23. Having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ 

which is far better 130 

Col. i: 5. The hope which was laid up for you in heaven. . . 254 

Col. i: 18. The firstborn from the dead 262 

1 Thess. iv: 13. I would not have you to be ignorant, 
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sor- 
row not, even as others which have no hope 283 

1 Thess. iv: 14. For if we believe that Jesus died, and rose 
again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God 

bring with him 294 

1 Thess. iv: 14. Them also which sleep in Jesus 160 

1 Thess. iv: 17. So shall we be ever with the Lord 241 

1 Thess. iv: 18. Wherefore comfort one another with these 
words 217 

1 Tim. iv: 6. A good minister of Jesus Christ 437 

2 Tim. i: 10. Who hath abolished death, and hath brought 

life and immortality to light through the gospel 115 

2 Tim. iv: 6-8. For I am now ready to be offered, &c 142 

2 Tim. iv: 6, 7, 8. I am now ready to be offered, &c 190 

Heb. ii: 15. And deliver them who through fear of death 

were all their lifetime subject to bondage 225 

Heb. xi: 13. These all died in faith . . . and confessed 

that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth 249 

Heb. xi: 21. By faith, Jacob, when'he was a dying, blessed 

both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped leaning upon 

the top of his staff 276 

Rev. ii: 10. Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee 

a crown of light 258 

Rev. iii: 12. Him that overcomelh will I make a pillar in 

the temple of my God 365 

Rev. xii: 5. And her child was caught up unto God and to 

his throne 17 

Rev. xiv: 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord 

from henceforth ; Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may 

rest from their labors; and their works do follow them. .. 97 
Rev. xiv: 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord — 188 



The BOW in the CLOUD: 




OK, 



WORDS 



OIF 

COMFOUT 

For those in Bereavement, Sickness, Sorrow, 
and the Varied Afflictions of Life. 

Edited by REV. J. SANDERSON, D.D., 

Editor of The Pulpit Treasury, etc 

The messages, which this book conveys to tlie 
mourning and tried ones, come from the hearts 
and pens of those who have known what afflic- 
tions are, and who have been comforted by the 
precious truths, through which they would 
here seek to console others. Its contents, 
general and particular, comprise : 

i. -Consolation from the Bible. "Thus 

saith the Lord,"— which abideth forever. 

a-COMFORT FOR PARENTS Bereft of Child- 
ren, with Assurances of Infant Salvation. 

3.— FOR BEREAVED ONES. Various ages and 
conditions considered. Prose and poetry. 

4.— Comfort for the Aged and Infirm. They 

may here find a balm for every wound. 

5.— To those in Varied Afflictions; Earth 

has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal. 

450 pages, Square, xamo, with Frontispiece and 
Presentation Pag: from Special design, $1.75. 

E. B. TEEAT .Publisher, New York. 




" Behold (Luke 2-io)I bring you GLAD 
TIDINGS of great joy, which shall be 
to all people." 

MOODTS 
SERMONS 



PRAYER MEETING TALKS, 

Entitled Glad Tidings delivered in New York 
from verbatim reports revised and corrected, with 
full Index to Anecdotes and Illustrations, in- 
cluding the life and labors of D. L. Moody. 

This volume is issued in compliance with the numer- 
ous and repeated requests for the publication in a perma- 
nent and popular form of Mr. Moody's Addresses at the 
Hippodrome, in this city. The reports (from stenographic 
notes) have been carefully revised and corrected, and are 
believed to constitute the only complete and adequate pub- 
lication of Mr. Moody's Sermons, either in this country or 
England. — The New York Daily Tribune. 

Moody is a power without being peculiar. He is straight 
and plain, like the way to Heaven which he preaches. — 
Cincinnati Journal and Messenger. 

They are the fullest and best reports that have been 
made. — New York Observer. 

It will prove a treasure in every Christian home. — New 
York Christian Advocate. 

504 i2mo pages, extra cloth, $1.50. 

This series of Sermons are issued in 3 Volumes and are uni- 
form in style and entirely different in subiects and matter. 

Grlad Tidings, Moody' sNew York Sermons, 504 pp. $1,50. 

Great Joy, Moody's Chicago Sermons, 544 pages, $1.50 

To all People, Moody's Boston Sermons, 508 pages, 1,50, 

Introduction by Rev. Joseph Cook, of Boston. 

E. B. TREAT, Publisher, 771 Broadway, New York. 



TALMAGE'S SEBMONS. 

New Tabernacle Series. 



By T. DE WITT TALMAGE, D.D., 

Pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle. 



This book contains the best specimens of the wonder- 
ful pulpit productions of their brilliant author. There are 
no tame thoughts, drowsy platitudes or prosaic utterances 
within its covers. Every page beams with originality, 
flashes with light and sparkles with gems of oratory. His 
simple, earnest, pungent, eloquent presentation of the 
truths of the Gospel, command attention and are read 
with a lasting interest and profit. 

Dr. Talmage has the ear of the world. It is literally 
true that his pulpit fame "has gone out through all the 
earth and his words to the end of the world." Hence the 
demand for his sermons which are eagerly sought for and 
read by hundreds of thousands. 

This volume is authorized by Dr. Talmage. See fac- 
simile of autograph letter published in the preface. 



Intensely earnest, brilliant as a meteor, practical 
beyond most preachers — always pleading for Christ and 
grasping for souls. — Philadelphia Presbyterian. 

He is a fearless antagonist to all forms of sin. — 
Chicago Interior. 

His sermons reveal skill in word-painting, fearlessness 
in statement, and directness of aim. — Am. Ch. Review. 

A line sometimes unfolds a picture.— Congregation - 

alist - [Observer. 

A fertility of illustrations that is marvelous. — N. Y. 

Nearly 400 pp. With Portrait. Price, - $1.50 

E. B. TREAT, Publisher, 771 Broadway, Hew York. 




"Their words go straight to the mark like bullets. "-£i 

PEN 

PULPIT 

AND 

PLATFORM. 

By T. DeWltt TALMAGE, DJ). 

AIMED AT 

Wrongs To Be Righted. Burdens To Be Lightened 

Errors To Be Corrected. Follies To Be Shunned. 

Dangers 2 B Avoided. Sorrows 2 B Mitigated. 

Victories To Be Won. 

This book is a Treasury of the best things that have ema- 
nated from the brain of its distinguished author. All 
who become familiar with its contents will agree that it is 
wisely named. The varied ills of life, as targets subject to 
these unerring shots, cover nearly every phase of disordered 
humanity. The young will appreciate its warnings and in- 
structions, and delight in its incidents and anecdotes, and 
the aged will welcome it as a companion, for its wise and 
soothing counsel. Hearts that ache with nameless burdens 
will be soothed, victims of folly and error will be admon- 
ished, the sorrowing will be comforted, and all struggling 
souls will be inspired with new faith and hope, determined 
to remain in the field of conflict uutil the last shot is fired 
and the final shout of victory is heard. 

Open the book where you will, the eye rests upon some 
passage of rare beauty, some truth painted, some sorrow 
depicted, or some joy unfolded as if every lost one was found. 

No one ever tires of what Dr. Talmage writes. — Lutheran Visitor, 
He is dead in earnest, and every blow tells. — N. Y. Independent. 
It may be termed a literary Gatling gun. — Christian Hour. 
Packed with live thoughts from a live man, — Evangelical Messenger. 
Faithful in wounding, skillful in healing. — Christian Herald, [cate. 
An exhaustless mine of thought and illustration. — Christian Adva- 

Agents "Wanted. 6 56 crown Bvo pages Illustrated, $2.00. 

E. B. TEE AT, Publisher, 771 Broadway, N.ew York. 



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